Listen Wednesday, May 1 at 8 p.m.
Join Helen Lyons for a special edition of the VSO on Vermont Public Classical this week. She'll be speaking with Music Director Andrew Crust about the upcoming 2024-2025 season as the Vermont Symphony Orchestra celebrates their 90th Anniversary. With short excerpts and pieces by Margaret Bonds, Nico Muhly, Lili Boulanger, and others, they'll preview the VSO's two tours and four mainstage concerts. We'll also hear from guest soloist, violinist Bella Hristova, who will lead the VSO during their Made in Vermont Tour. Learn about the diverse offerings coming to the VSO next season and get ready to mark your calendars!
Listen on your local frequency, stream online at www.vermontpublic.org, or on the Vermont Public App.
For more information about the VSO and their upcoming events, click here.
TRANSCRIPT
PLEASE NOTE: This discussion contains mention of suicide, please read/listen with caution. If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please reach out immediately to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or call or text 988. These services are free and confidential.
HELEN LYONS
That was Kellen Gray with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the opening movement from Margaret Bond's Montgomery Variations. Good evening, I’m Helen Lyons, bringing you a special edition of the VSO Concert on Vermont Public Classical. Tonight, we won't be hearing the VSO itself, but a preview of works that will be performed by the VSO during their 2024 25 season as they celebrate their 90th anniversary. And with me to help us along is music director Andrew Crust. Good evening, Andrew, how are you?
ANDREW CRUST
I'm doing so well. Thank you for having us for this hour.
LYONS
Tell us a little bit about that piece by Margaret Bonds and when folks will be able to hear it during the VSO's upcoming season.
CRUST
Well, this is a piece that came to me recently and I just love it and I love her story. Margaret Bonds was a Black composer, American composer who actually was also very close friends and even roommates with Florence Price. And she took a journey, a sort of pilgrimage to Montgomery where so many of the really important civil rights historical moments occurred. And she soaked it all in and then she came back to Chicago and perhaps where she was at the time and wrote this, this long piece about all of those different moments in civil rights history. And it's a very powerful piece of music. We're going to be performing that in our Summer Festival Tour. And it's a part of our tradition which started a number of years ago that we are continuing to have a female or BIPOC composer on every single one of our programs. And it's oftentimes not just one because there's just so much great music out there. And she's a great example of one of those composers with a great Americana sound that has been neglected. And so we're really thrilled to bring her back this summer.
LYONS
Yes, those variations are really stunning. I was listening through to them and they make you feel the breadth of American history told through the eyes of a person who's a member of a community who has been neglected and marginalized.
CRUST
That's absolutely right. And the rest of the program is very exciting. It's our 90th season. So we are celebrating three of our own soloists. Kelly O'Connor, our principal clarinet, will play a Ticheli concerto. D. Thomas Toner is going to play a xylophone concerto, our principal percussionist, and our principal cello John Dunlop will play the Faure Elegy interspersed with some patriotic music, some Sufjan Stevens and of course, some John Williams - we’ll be playing his ET: Adventures on Earth. So it's a really family friendly program to kick off the year.
LYONS
That's fantastic. So, that's your Summer Festival Tour which runs from July 3rd to July 7th.
CRUST
That's right. And we play all over the state as is our tradition. We're really the only statewide orchestra in the country and this is my first Summer Festival Tour. So I'm so thrilled to meet audience members around the entire state.
LYONS
You're going to have a great time. It's always such a great vibe at those summer festival concerts for sure.
CRUST
I cannot wait.
LYONS
And then we head into the season in September with your Made in Vermont tour. Tell us a little bit about that. That is September 6th through 8th.
CRUST
Well, you know, as a conductor, I recognize that sometimes, you know, musicians love working with conductors, sometimes they love not having a conductor around. And I think it can be a really exciting musical experience and that's how it was, of course, in the days of Mozart, there were no conductors. So I thought who's a great soloist that could lead from the violin. And of course, naturally, I thought of Bella Hristova who has been a soloist with us many times and she's a frequent friend of the VSO. So I gave her carte blanche and I said, figure out what you want to play. I recommended some of the Four Seasons. So she will be playing a bit of the Vivaldi Four Seasons, a bit of the Piazzolla Four Seasons. She's also going to be doing some Vermont style fiddling, which we've done some research to, to find some traditional Vermont fiddle tunes. And the rest of it is really a Vermont-centric program in part because we've got a bit of Nico Muhly, which you'll hear, but it's, it's really just Bella's carte blanche program and we're so happy with the program that she's put together
LYONS
We're going to hear now from Bella Hristova, who very kindly called in a message for us as she talks about what she's looking forward to on the Made in Vermont tour in September.
BELLA HRISTOVA
Hi, I’m violinist Bella Hristova and I'm thrilled to be returning to the Vermont Symphony Orchestra next season for the Made In Vermont tour. I've heard wonderful things about this unique tour from both my teacher and former VSO music director Jamie Laredo and from my husband David Ludwig, who was a composer in residence with the VSO. We'll be playing an exciting and varied program of music, combining old favorites and hidden gems which all celebrate nature, the changing seasons and the harvest and bounty of fall. Having spent many summers in Vermont, both at Marlboro Music and at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Vermont is a very special place for me and I'm absolutely delighted to connect with the communities in Derby Line, Randolph and Manchester this fall. This is my fourth time appearing with the VSO and it's the first time where I'll also be leading the orchestra as well as playing a soloist. So I'm very much looking forward to it and I hope to see you there.
LYONS
Thank you Bella Hristova. And we'll hear an excerpt now from the Nico Muhly violin concerto that Bella will be playing on that concert. It's titled Shrink, and as Nico Muhly says, each movement obsesses over certain intervals, the overall structure of the piece suggesting an intensifying focus on these small building blocks. We'll hear the final movement.
MUSIC PLAYS
LYONS
That was the third movement from Vermont-born composer Nico Muhly, hailing from Randolph, his violin concerto titled Shrink. We heard the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra led from the violin by Pekka Kuusisto. I'm Helen Lyons here with music director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Crust, and we are giving you a preview of the 2024-2025 season. Next up, we are heading for the opening concert of the season, September 27th and 28th. Andrew, you have some really fun stuff lined up for this one, tell us a little bit about what folks can expect.
CRUST
Well, this is a concert all about Americana and I think obviously the strength of American music throughout history is the diversity of the people in America. And so, a lot of our music that we've invented right here in America started from Black Americans and we're celebrating not only the work of Adolphus Hailstork - his An American Port of Call. He's a living composer who will actually be in town. But of course, if you're doing Americana, you have to have some Gershwin and we've got the American in Paris, but we're also doing Rhapsody In Blue, not with a pianist, but with legendary banjo player, Bela Fleck. And I'm really excited to see what his arrangements of this piece will look like. And we finish the program with one of my favorite American symphonies by William Grant Still: the Symphony #1, Afro American, which is really infused with the blues and jazz, but also he has a sound world all his own. And it's a symphony which really celebrates African American culture and heritage and points out the struggles that he's had culturally but also a very optimistic look into the future. And so musically, this entire program I just think fits together so well, it sounds like America through and through
LYONS
And we are going to hear a little excerpt, maybe not the exact piece that Bella Fleck will be performing, but it's a shortened version of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue. It's titled Rhapsody In Blues. We'll hear Bela Fleck perform.
MUSIC PLAYS
LYONS
A little preview of the fun that will be had on the Vermont Symphony Orchestra's opening concert, September 27th and 28th. That was Bela Fleck's arrangement of George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue. And we heard Bela Fleck performing on the banjo here on Vermont Public Classical. I am delighted to be chatting with music director of the VSO Andrew Crust who's giving us a preview of the 2024 2025 season. Thank you so much for joining me, Andrew. Now take us into late fall and the second concert of the season.
CRUST
Wow. It's just, it's hard to know which one of these is my favorite because there's so much going on and I am very proud of this second Flynn program, because we're also doing it as a young person's concert in the style of Leonard Bernstein. It's something we haven't done as an orchestra in a while. We're taking the Flynn classical repertoire and creating a whole program just for kids. It's a celebration of Prokofiev and Stravinsky and some of the biggest and most important 20th century ballets. We have Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Stravinsky's Firebird, which launched his career when he was in his early twenties, truly showpieces for the entire orchestra.
But we're also starting with a wonderful piece by Lili Boulanger who was a master composer who died at the age of 24. And I just can't imagine what more music she would have produced had she lived longer. She was the sister of the legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger who taught every single composer practically who lived in the 20th century and just truly had a unique color all to her own. And it's such a shame that we didn't have more music from her. But the special thing about this program also is that we're going to use multiple cameras to capture the orchestra from close up angles and wide angles and project that onto a screen. So no matter where you are in the audience, you'll be seeing the orchestra close up and I'll be giving a sort of lecture as well. We'll be playing excerpts from the music and showing some visual elements and some slides to give you an in depth discussion about how this music was made and how it's structured. After that, we'll play the entire piece. So it's, it's a bit of an experimental program, but I think it's going to be really enjoyable for people who maybe want to know a little bit more about the background of the music.
LYONS
I think that's a terrific idea. It's like a lecture recital or lecture concert.
CRUST
Right! And you don't have to know everything about the music. You don't have to have a doctorate in musicology to enjoy it, of course. But having that in-depth understanding about the musical motifs and what was going on in the composer's life, it does add a huge amount to the experience. So if this goes well, I think we're going to keep doing this in, in the upcoming years.
LYONS
Well, that's a really terrific idea. And, you know, I also, I also like to think about - going back to Lili Boulanger because we're going to hear a piece of hers in just a moment. Nadia Boulanger sort of stopped composing after Lili's death, preferring to teach and also to promote the very small oeuvre, of Lili's output. And so I imagine if if Lili Boulanger had lived longer, we would have even more works by Nadia Boulanger to supplement the repertoire.
CRUST
It's truly tragic. And luckily, you know, Nadia's work was as a teacher and, and everyone from Bernstein to Copeland to Quincy Jones studied with Nadia Boulanger. And so in a way, she did shape their compositions and we do have her music in a sort of indirect way, but they were so close as sisters and it was such a tragedy that, you are right, she stopped composing.
LYONS
Well, let's hear from Lili Boulanger now: this is the orchestral version of her Of a Spring Morning, Nikolaij Szeps-Znaider leads the Orchestre National de Lyon.
MUSIC PLAYS
LYONS
Music by French composer Lili Boulanger. Her Of a Spring Morning, Nikolaij Szeps-Znaider leading the Orchestre National de Lyon. And that piece will be featured on the VSOs second concert of their 2024 25 season, October 25th and 26th. Joining me here in the studio this evening is music director Andrew Crust who is giving a little preview of what we can expect throughout the coming season with the VSO. Now, we head into the depths of winter here with a third Flynn concert. February 12th and 13th. There is a lot of really interesting stuff. Tell us what folks can expect on this one.
CRUST
There absolutely is. This is, I mean, I can't choose a favorite program this season, I truly can't. But in terms of guest artists, no one will be unhappy with Sir Stephen Hough. And we are so thrilled to have him back in Burlington. He's a friend of the Symphony and he's just a consummate musician, composer, writer, also a visual artist. And in fact, we're going to be giving one of the very first performances of his brand new piano concerto, which is entitled The World of Yesterday. It's a celebration of the work of composers slash pianists like Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff and so forth. And I've heard it already. It's really wonderful. It's amazing that a person can play the piano so well and also compose so well. But of course, it's not enough to have him play one work only. So he's doing double duty on the Mendelsohn First Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
But surrounding that activity with Sir Stephen Hough is a lot of exciting work as well. We've got a piece by Anna Clyne who's another living composer and it's called Sound and Fury, and if you know Shakespeare, of course, you will catch the reference there. And in fact, the music calls for a narrator to speak a Shakespearean soliloquy over the music. It's an incredibly powerful and energetic and colorful piece of music, a real showpiece for the orchestra. But we open the program with what we're going to hear next, which is a piece by Wojciech Kilar who was a Polish composer. This piece was written in the eighties. It's called Orawa, and Orawa is a region in Poland which is very mountainous and he displays that sort of mountainous quality in this minimalist score, which in my mind is also sort of telling a story of water as it starts very small and begins to roar as it goes down through the rivers. It's full of incredible rhythmic energy, and by the end, it's just gonna have you jumping out of your seat. It's one of my favorite pieces of the 20th century.
LYONS
Let's have a listen to this piece now, it is an incredibly powerful piece. This is Wojciek Kilar’s Orawa. Zsolt Szefcsik leads the Erody Chamber Orchestra.
MUSIC PLAYS
LYONS
That was Zsolt Szefcsik with the Erody Chamber Orchestra in Wojciek Kilar’s Orawa, which will be featured on the VSO’s third concert of the 2024-2025 season. I'm Helen Lyons here on a special edition of the VSO on Vermont Public Classical with VSO Music Director Andrew Crust Andrew. It's been a real pleasure having you join me this evening. We have one more concert to preview for our listeners, the finale of the VSO’s 24-25 season. Really important stuff going on in this one, tell us all about it.
CRUST
There is a lot going on in this one. I mean, we could just do Mahler's First Symphony and leave it at that, and that would be an event in and of itself. I think anytime we have a Mahler symphony, it truly is an event. If you've never experienced a Mahler symphony, he has this way of flinging you from one end of the emotional universe to the other. It's an entire journey and also for the orchestra, it's, it's an incredible, virtuosic workout, sort of a marathon emotionally and physically. And so I think what a great way to end the season then with such a celebration of Mahler's music is his Titan Symphony.
But of course, we do also have a first half and it's very challenging to program with Mahler because it's already quite emotionally heavy. Now, I did not go light in the first half, I will tell you. We open with a relatively light piece by Alexandra Dubois, who is a Vermont composer, called her Fanfare for Orchestra. It's just a nice way to, to, to warm up as we go in through the program. But the second piece on the first half is by Jocelyn Morlock. Jocelyn was a Canadian composer, she was a friend of mine, she unfortunately passed away last year and she left such an important legacy on Canadian music as a whole, but really new music in general. She was so giving of her time and whenever I would ask her about her own scores, if I could have a look at her own scores, she wouldn't send me her scores. She would send me the scores of about 10 different living composers. So truly, just a wonderful advocate. And she wrote this piece called My Name is Amanda Todd. It was commissioned by the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa and it won a Juno.
If you're not familiar with the story of Amanda Todd, she was a Canadian teenager who suffered from severe exploitation online from an older adult male. And this led to severe depression and mental health issues throughout her young life. And tragically she ended her life. And the only upside to this tragedy is that she made videos that told her story and those stories and those videos started a movement which her mother Carol Todd has helped create as well. And so when Jocelyn was given the task of writing a piece about this, at first, she wasn't sure if she could do it, but Jocelyn herself struggled with mental health issues.
And I think she recognized that this is an important issue. And so she did something incredible which was to make a piece of music that can somehow resonate and speak to this issue, but do it in a very organic and, and powerful way. And we're very happy to be collaborating on this program with the Me2 Orchestra, and that's an orchestra that we have a chapter in Burlington, they're also in Boston and all around New England. It's an orchestra that prides themselves on having no stigma and it's an orchestra for people who suffer from mental health issues. And anyone is allowed to join without an audition and they play at a very high level. And so we thought, why don't we collaborate with them and bring some of their players into the orchestra.
So a number of those Me2 players are going to be playing with the VSO on stage, so a very powerful message and also the music just happens to be incredible, she's one of my favorite Canadian composers
LYONS
I have to really thank you for introducing me to Jocelyn Morlock’s work. I've added a lot of her pieces to our library and they are truly special. It is again like with Lily Boulanger, although Morlock lived a longer life, it is an absolute tragedy that we don't have her around today composing. And also, you know, over the course of my life, I have seen how the stigma of mental health issues has changed so much. And I think, it's great that we can talk about these things so much more openly than, we did, you know, 40 odd years ago when I was a kid.
CRUST
And music, you know, has a way of cutting straight to the issue without these awkward and inefficient words that we use. And so I think combining music with these messages is even more powerful.
LYONS
And so for the final concert of the VSO's 90th season in May of 2025, the music of Mahler, Alexandra Dubois and Jocelyn Morlock will be featured, and we're going to hear Morlock’s My Name is Amanda Todd right now, Alexander Shelley leads the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada.
MUSIC PLAYS
LYONS
Jocelyn Morlock’s My Name is Amanda Todd. Alexander Shelley led the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada here on Vermont Public Classical, where we have spent the last hour chatting with music Director of the VSO Andrew Crust with a preview of the upcoming 2024 2025 season. You can find all that information at VSO.org. Andrew, thank you so much for joining me this evening.
CRUST
Such a privilege to be on the air. I've been listening to public radio my whole life and to have your support in our 90th season is just so important for us.
LYONS
Thank you very much, and thank you all for listening this evening to this special episode of the VSO on Vermont Public Classical. I'm Helen Lyons, have a great evening.
