{ program notes
Steve J. Sherman Andrew Schaff
Nicholas McGegan
Celebrating his 30 th season with the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan is music director of the Philharmonia, principal guest conductor of the Pasadena Symphony and, since 2014, Artist in Association with Australia’ s Adelaide Symphony.
Mr. McGegan has been principal guest conductor of the Scottish Opera and principal conductor of Sweden’ s 18 th century Drottningholm Theater. As a guest conductor, he has been a pioneer in bringing historically informed performances to symphony audiences all over the world.
His discography of more than 100 releases includes the world premiere recording of Handel’ s Susanna, which attracted a Gramophone award.
Born in England, Mr. McGegan was educated at Cambridge and Oxford universities. His awards include an honorary professorship at Georg- August University, Göttingen, the Hallé Handel Prize, an order of merit of the state of Lower Saxony, a Medal of Honour of the City of Göttingen and the declaration of Nicholas McGegan Day by the Mayor of San Francisco, honoring two decades of work with the Philharmonia Baroque. Mr. McGegan was made an OBE in the Queen’ s Birthday Honours List 2010.
Nicholas McGegan last appeared with the BSO in February 2015, conducting conducting a program of J. S. Bach, C. P. E Bach and J. C Bach.
Yulia Van Doren
Russian-American soprano Yulia Van Doren has performed with the Toronto, Nashville, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Albany, Columbus, Indianapolis and San Francisco symphonies, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Music of the Baroque,
Denis Jouglet
Boston Baroque, and Washington D. C.’ s Folger Consort.
The only singer awarded a top prize in all four U. S. Bach vocal competitions, Ms. Van Doren has appeared as a soloist in almost all of the North American early music festivals and orchestras. Her recordings include two Grammy-nominated opera recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival, and the world-premiere recording of Shostakovich’ s Orango, recorded with the L. A. Philharmonic and released by Deutsche Grammophon.
Born in Moscow and raised in the United States, Ms. Van Doren is an Astral Artist, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, and a Beebe Grant recipient.
Yulia Van Doren last appeared with the BSO in December 2012, performing Handel’ s Messiah, Edward Polochick, conductor.
Christopher Ainslie
Christopher Ainslie first considered singing as a profession after performing the alto solos in Bach’ s Matthäus Passion with the St George’ s Singers in his native Cape Town. Since then, Bach’ s music has taken him around the world, with performances including the Weihnachts Oratorium with Vladimir Jurowski in Moscow, alto cantatas with Les Passions de l’ Ame in Switzerland and Belgium, Matthäus Passion at the London Handel Festival, Magnificat at the Wigmore Hall, the Mass in B Minor in New York City and cantatas with the Internationale Bachakadamie Stuttgart.
In 2007, Mr. Ainslie won the Michael Oliver Prize at the London Handel Festival, and the next year was the first countertenor to win the Richard Tauber competition at Wigmore Hall. In 2011, he won the Gianni Bergamo countertenor competition in Switzerland. Mr. Ainslie studied singing with Mark Tucker and graduated from the Royal College of Music.
Christopher Ainslie is making his BSO debut.
Paul Foster-Williams Ann Marsden
Thomas Cooley
Minnesota-born tenor Thomas Cooley has appeared with some of the world’ s most prestigious conductors in repertoire that includes Beethoven’ s Missa Solemnis, Berlioz’ Requiem, Nuits d’ été and L’ enfance du Christ, Haydn’ s Seasons, Stravinsky’ s Les Noces, Mendelssohn’ s Lobgesang, Elgar’ s Dream of Gerontius, Bernstein’ s Candide and many others.
Recent appearances include Beethoven’ s Ninth Symphony with the Copenhagen and Bremen philharmonics, and Milwaukee Symphony; Britten’ s War Requiem with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, Atlanta, Oregon, and Indianapolis symphonies; the roles of Bob Boles in Britten’ s Peter Grimes with the St. Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall and Peter Quint in Britten’ s Turn of the Screw with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Creation / Creator oratorio with Atlanta Symphony; and a new production of Handel’ s Acis and Galatea with the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Thomas Cooley last appeared with the BSO in January 2015, performing Beethoven ' s Symphony No. 9, Nicholas McGegan, conductor.
Dashon Burton
Bass-Baritone Dashon Burton’ s recent performances include Bach’ s B Minor Mass at the Bethlehem Bach Festival, Messiah with I Solisti, and the bass arias in the St. Matthew Passion at the Spoleto USA Festival. Last summer, he appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra to open the Blossom Music Festival in Beethoven’ s Ninth Symphony conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
An avid performer of new music, Mr. Burton has premiered works of Christopher Cerrone, Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, and Judd Greenstein. He is a founding member of the touring chamber ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Devoted to performing new compositions, the group received a
May – June 2016 | Overture 25