BRAHMS SYMPHONY NO. 1 WITH HEYWARD
Academy, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, where he was mentored by Sir Mark Elder, and became Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. In 2023, he became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
Jonathon is committed to education and community outreach work, as well as to including new music within his imaginative concert programs.
Joshua Roman
Joshua Roman is a cello soloist and composer, hailed for his“ effortlessly expressive tone … and playful zest for exploration”( The New York Times), as well as his“ extraordinary technical and musical gifts” and“ blend of precision and almost improvisatory freedom … that goes straight to the heart”( The San Francisco Chronicle). His genrebending programs and wide-ranging collaborations have grown out of an
Joshua Roman
“ enthusiasm for musical evolution that is as contagious as his love for the classics”( The Seattle Times).
Roman’ s singular 2024-25 season opens with the launch of his ambitious and deeply personal project Immunity, an intimate musical exploration of his life-altering experience of ongoing Long COVID, with music ranging from J. S. Bach to George Crumb to Caroline Shaw, as well as Roman’ s own compositions. A recording of the full program was released October 4 on Bright Shiny
Shervin Lainez
Things, coinciding with a tour where Roman performed music from Immunity in Long COVID clinics across the United States, including New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, Kansas City, St. Louis, and more. By sharing music and community with other Long COVID patients, Roman aims to raise awareness of the condition and communicate the project’ s core message of finding strength in vulnerability.
Additional 2024 – 25 highlights include a national Trio tour with violinist Tessa Lark and double bassist Edgar Meyer, the world premiere of a new Cello Concerto composed by James Lee III with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, two Well-Being concerts with Carnegie Hall, a residency at Stanford University that will center around Immunity, concerto performances with the Pacific Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and Asheville Symphony, and solo recitals around the country.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Jacob Jahiel
Edward Elgar
Born June 2, 1857 in Lower Broadheath( near Worcester), United Kingdom Died February 23, 1934 in Worcester, United Kingdom
FROISSART, OP. 19 [ 1890 ]
It was not until his early forties, with the now universally known Enigma Variations( 1899) and Pomp and Circumstance( 1901), that Edward Elgar at last catapulted into international fame. Recognition was hard-fought; as opposed to his more pedigreed contemporaries, Elgar was self-taught, and though his style has now become synonymous with the sound of England— Sibelius called him“ the personification of the true English character in music”— he largely drew from continental composers like Richard Strauss, Felix Mendelssohn, and Richard Wagner. These reasons in part prompted Elgar’ s peers to look upon his music with derision, and critics were also slow to warm to him. Nevertheless, when fame finally found him, it gripped him tightly, and he would stand at the zenith of English musical identity for nearly two decades.
Composers do not always look fondly upon their earlier works, and Elgar was initially uncertain about Froissart, the concert overture that marked his first significant orchestral work. Four decades time, however, seemed to improve his opinion, and in 1933 Elgar remarked to his recording engineer,“ It is difficult to believe that I wrote it in 1890! It sounds so brilliant, and so fresh.”
So it is. Froissart draws inspiration from the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, the 14 th-century writer-historian whose accounts of the Hundred Years War represent some of the finest, lengthiest, and most detailed of the period. It is to Chronicles that historians and Hollywood alike owe much of their understanding to the late-Medieval chivalric code; atop
Elgar’ s score read the words by John Keats,“ When Chivalry / Lifted up her lance on high.” Accordingly, Elgar strikes a heroic tone in Froissart’ s stately marches and grand melodies. When, in the lengthy development, struggle arises, it is dispatched with bravery, poise, and a dash of gallantry— all qualities befitting a great knight.
Instrumentation: Flute, piccolo, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, and strings.
James Lee III
Born November 26, 1975 in St. Joseph, Michigan Resides in Edgewood, MD
RENEWED MIND, CONCERTO FOR CELLO & ORCHESTRA [ 2025 ]
Despite the relative popularity of their instrument, cellists get a short shrift when it comes to the medium of the concerto.
MAY-JUN 2025 | OVERTURE | 13