Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Performers

• Jill Grove, Mezzo-Soprano
• New York Choral Artists
  Joseph Flummerfelt, Chorus Director
• Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
  Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor
• The American Boychoir
  Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Music Director

Program

• MAHLER Symphony No. 3
• 
  Program is approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes, and will be performed without intermission

Bios

• Jill Grove, Mezzo-soprano
  
  American mezzo-soprano Jill Grove opened the 2009–2010 season with a return to Los Angeles Opera as Erda in Siegfried, the third installation in Achim Freyer’s monumental new Ring cycle, with James Conlon conducting. She closes the cycle as the First Norn in Götterdämmerung. Ms. Grove also appears as the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas this season with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan.
  
  Other past performances include Zita in a Los Angeles Opera production of Gianni Schicchi, directed by Woody Allen; Countess Geschwitz in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lulu; Erda in the Met’s final presentations of Otto Schenk’s Das Rheingold with James Levine; Die Frau ohne Schatten at Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Auntie in a new production by John Doyle of Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Met, under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Concert appearances have included Bach’s Magnificat, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, and Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht.
  
  Ms. Grove’s roles at the Metropolitan Opera have included Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Madelon in Andrea Chenier, and Pantalis in Boito’s Mefistofele. Her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut was as Erda under Sir Andrew Davis. Her most recent role at San Francisco Opera was Jenny Reefer in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, conducted by Donald Runnicles.
  
  Ms. Grove’s recordings include Ulrica on a Chandos recording of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera; Auntie in Peter Grimes on the LSO Live label, under Sir Colin Davis; and the Omniscient Mussel in Strauss’s Die Ägyptische Helena with the American Symphony Orchestra on Teldec.
  
  Ms. Grove has received an ARIA Award and career grants from the Richard Tucker, George London, and Sullivan foundations. She attended New England Conservatory and Stephen F. Austin State University.

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• New York Choral Artists
  
  The New York Choral Artists was founded by Joseph Flummerfelt in 1979. Highlights of past seasons include a memorial performance of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the New York Philharmonic in 2001; the world premiere of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls with the same orchestra in 2002; and performances at the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 and the 100th anniversary of Carnegie Hall. The choir has sung under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Colin Davis, Erich Leinsdorf, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, and Riccardo Muti, among many others.
  
  Collaborating regularly with the New York Philharmonic, the choir has performed Strauss’s Elektra, Puccini’s Tosca, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Britten’s War Requiem on the occasion of Mr. Maazel’s retirement, Handel’s Messiah with Nicholas McGegan, and an acclaimed run of My Fair Lady with Rob Fischer. Other performances include Verdi’s Requiem, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky.
  
  The New York Choral Artists’ discography includes On the Transmigration
  of Souls with Lorin Maazel and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Leonard Bernstein—both of which won Grammy Awards; Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Zubin Mehta; Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 with Kurt Masur; Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd; Stravinsky’s Symphony Of Psalms, Oedipus Rex, and Requiem Canticles; Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; a Christmas recording featuring Kathleen Battle; and a Christmas album, O Come All Ye Faithful.
  
  
  Joseph Flummerfelt, Chorus Director
  
  Joseph Flummerfelt, Musical America’s 2004 Conductor of the Year, is the founder and Musical Director of the New York Choral Artists. He is also an Artistic Director of Spoleto Festival USA, and was the conductor of the Westminster Choir for 33 years.
  
  Mr. Flummerfelt has conducted over 50 performances with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy and the US. He has also guest conducted numerous US orchestras in Haydn’s Creation and the world premiere of Stephen Paulus’s Voices of Light with the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir, among others.
  
  For nearly four decades, Mr. Flummerfelt has collaborated in the preparation of hundreds of choral-orchestral performances with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, and Riccardo Chailly, among others.
  
  Mr. Flummerfelt’s Westminster Symphonic Choir and New York Choral Artists have been featured in 45 recordings, including Britten’s War Requiem, the Grammy Award–winning Mahler Symphony No. 3 with Leonard Bernstein and John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, and Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ with the National Symphony Orchestra.
  
  Mr. Flummerfelt has also won a Grammy for a recording of Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra, and nominations for the Westminster Choir’s recording of Haydn’s Missa in angustiis with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet with Riccardo Muti and The Philadelphia Orchestra. His other accolades include a Le Prix du Président de la République from L'Académie du Disque Français, and four honorary doctoral degrees.

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• Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor
  
  “The most important thing is absolute commitment to the orchestra.” With these words, Mariss Jansons described his role as Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position he has held for the last five years. He is the sixth conductor to have held this post since the orchestra was founded in 1888. Originally from Latvia, Mr. Jansons studied violin and conducting in Leningrad, and continued his studies with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1973, he was appointed Yevgeny Mravinsky’s assistant with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which his father, Arv?ds, had also conducted.
  
  From 1979 to 2000, Mr. Jansons served as music director of the Oslo-Filharmonien and brought it to great international acclaim. He has made numerous appearances throughout the world as a guest conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna and London philharmonic orchestras, as well as the leading orchestras in the US. He was appointed music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1997, and Music Director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2003. He relinquished his post in Pittsburgh in 2004 to assume the position of Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, having previously made guest appearances with the RCO nearly every year since his first performance with the orchestra in 1988.
  
  Mr. Jansons has received various distinctions for his achievements, including the Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, conferred on him by His Majesty King Harald V of Norway. He is an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Latvia’s highest honor, the Three-Star Order, was conferred on him in 2006.
  
  
  
  Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
  
  Established in 1888, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of the world’s most prestigious symphony orchestras. Composer and conductor Richard Strauss described it as “magnificent, full of youthful vigor and enthusiasm” in 1897. The orchestra was conferred Royal status by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1988.
  
  The RCO’s character has been shaped by several generations of musicians, a longstanding collaboration with each of the six chief conductors since its founding, and the unique acoustic properties of the Concertgebouw’s main hall. The orchestra has gained widespread acclaim for its velvety strings, golden brass, and an exceptional and personal timbre of its woodwinds.
  
  During the leadership of chief conductor Willem Mengelberg (1895–1945), composers such as R. Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, and Stravinsky conducted the ROC. Other luminaries—such as Bartók, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev—performed their own works as soloists. This crucial bond with contemporary composers continued with Bruno Maderna, Witold Lutoslawski, Peter Schat, Otto Ketting, and Luciano Berio, and continues with Hans Werner Henze, Pierre Boulez, and John Adams, among others.
  
  The RCO’s interpretations of the late Romantic repertoire have earned it great international acclaim. It began a tradition of performing Mahler through performances led by the composer himself, and continued it under Bernard Haitink through recordings of the complete symphonies and the Christmas Matinée concert series of Mahler works. Under the leadership of Eduard van Beinum (1945–1959), the symphonies of Anton Bruckner also became a vital part of the orchestra’s repertoire.
  
  The arrival of Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons in 2004 marked a new phase for the RCO, which has expanded its repertoire to include such major 20th-century composers as Shostakovich and Messiaen. Mr. Jansons has also conducted a broad repertoire that ranges from Haydn and Mozart, to contemporary Dutch compositions and a commissioned work by Henze.
  
  The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra has made over 1,100 audio and video recordings. Its remarkable list of guest conductors includes Arthur Nikisch, Karl Muck, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Rafael Kubelik, Pierre Monteux, Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, George Szell, Carlos Kleiber, and Leonard Bernstein, among many others. It makes its home at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, a concert hall designed by architect A. L. van Gendt.

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• The American Boychoir
  
  The American Boychoir, under the direction of Litton-Lodal Music Director Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, is regarded as the premier concert boys’ choir in the US and one of the finest boychoirs in the world. Boys from grades four through eight—reflecting the ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity of our nation—come from nine states and four foreign countries to pursue a rigorous musical and academic curriculum at The American Boychoir School, the only non-sectarian boys’ choir school in the nation. Founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1937, The American Boychoir has been located in Princeton, New Jersey, since 1950. In addition to maintaining an active national and international touring schedule, the ensemble performs and records regularly with such world-class artists and ensembles as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, soprano Jessye Norman, pop diva Beyoncé, and Sir Paul McCartney.
  
  Highlights of recent seasons include performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur; Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3, “Kaddish,” with The Philadelphia Orchestra; and a tour to the Czech Republic in June 2008 as a featured ensemble in the Second International Boys and Men’s Choral Festival.
  
  The American Boychoir has been extensively recorded and broadcast on radio and television, with some 45 commercial recordings to its name. Its recording, Harmony: American Songs of Faith, was released in 2007 on the boychoir’s own label, Albemarle Records.
  
  
  
  Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Music Director
  
  Fernando Malvar-Ruiz was appointed Litton-Lodal Music Director of The American Boychoir in July 2004. Since then, he and the choir have toured throughout the US and worldwide. He also prepared the choir for performances at the 77th Annual Academy Awards and the Tanglewood Music Festival, and conducted the choir at the women’s final of the US Open (tennis). In addition, Mr. Malvar-Ruiz has prepared the choir for performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, working with such conductors as James Levine, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, and Christoph Eschenbach.
  
  A widely sought-after guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician, and a recognized expert in the adolescent male evolving voice, Mr. Malvar-Ruiz served as artistic director and guest conductor for the 2005 World Children’s Choir Festival in Hong Kong. He has conducted honor choirs at ACDA regional conventions and at OAKE national conventions. For the past 12 summers, he has been an instructor in the master’s program in music education at the Kodály Institute at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he teaches conducting and musicianship. In 2008, Mr. Malvar-Ruiz became a member of the faculty at the Academia Internacional de Verano de Direccion Coral y Pedago´gia Musical in Las Palmas, Spain.
  
  Mr. Malvar-Ruiz received bachelor’s degrees in piano performance and music theory from the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid, and a master’s degree in choral conducting from Ohio State University; he also attended the Kodály Institute in Kecskemét, Hungary, where he was awarded the Sharolta Kodály Scholarship. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in musical arts from the University of Illinois.

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