UCLA Philharmonia

The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
Department of Music presents

UCLA Philharmonia
Neal Stulberg, conductor

8 PM Saturday, December 7, 2024
Schoenberg Hall

Performers

Neal Stulberg

See Bio

Heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “. . .a shining example of podium authority and musical enlightenment,” NEAL STULBERG has garnered consistent international acclaim for performances of clarity, insight and conviction. Since 2005, he has served as Director of Orchestral Studies at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Chair of the UCLA Department of Music. He currently serves as Artistic Director of the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.

In North America, Mr. Stulberg has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Mexico City, National, New Jersey, New World, Oregon, Pacific, Phoenix, Saint Louis, San Antonio, San Francisco, Utah and Vancouver symphonies, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and New York City Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. A former assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Carlo Maria Giulini and music director of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, he is a recipient of the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award.

Mr. Stulberg’s European appearances have included performances in Germany with the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln and the orchestras of Augsburg, Bochum, Dortmund, Freiburg, Herford, Jena, Münster, Nürnberg, Oldenburg and Rostock. In Holland, he has conducted the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and led the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, North Holland Philharmonic, Gelders Orchestra and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam. He has also appeared as guest conductor with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway), Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra (Lithuania), Athens State Orchestra, London Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Barcelona Liceu Orchestra and Norwegian National Opera Orchestra.

International engagements have also included the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Korea Philharmonic (KBS), Queensland, Adelaide and West Australian symphonies, Haifa Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta and Ra’anana Symphonette.

An acclaimed pianist, Stulberg has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician and with major orchestras and at international festivals as pianist/conductor. His performances of Mozart concertos conducted from the keyboard are uniformly praised for their buoyant virtuosity and interpretive vigor. In 2011-12, he performed the complete Mozart sonatas for violin and piano with violinist Guillaume Sutre at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall and at the Grandes Heures de Saint Emilion festival in France. In 2018, he performed throughout South Africa on a recital tour with saxophonist Douglas Masek and in 2022, appeared as solo pianist in the world premiere of Inclusion, a new work for pianist and chamber orchestra by Hugh Levick.

Mr. Stulberg has conducted premieres of works by Paul Chihara, Mohammed Fairouz, Jan Friedlin, William Kraft, Alexander Krein, Betty Olivero, Steve Reich, Peter Schat, Lalo Schifrin, Dmitri Smirnov, Earl Stewart, Morton Subotnick, Joan Tower and Peter van Onna, among others, and has also led works by UCLA composers Münir Beken, Bruce Broughton, Kenny Burrell, Mark Carlson, Ian Krouse, David Lefkowitz and James Newton. He conducted the period-instrument orchestra Philharmonia Baroque in a festival of Mozart orchestral and operatic works, and has brought to life several silent movies from the early 1900s, including the Russian classic New Babylon, Shostakovich’s first film score. In August 2022, he conducted the North American premiere of Bas-Sheve, a recently rediscovered and orchestrated 1924 Yiddish-language opera by composer Henekh Kon and librettist Moishe Broderzon, at the Ashkenaz Festival in Toronto. In 2023, Stulberg led acclaimed performances of Dave Brubeck’s cantata, The Gates of Justice (1969) and the West Coast premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Symphony No. 6 (Vessels of Light) (2022) as part of the School of Music’s Music and Justice series, presented in collaboration with the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience.

Collaborators have included John Adams; Leonard Bernstein; Chris, Dan and Darius Brubeck; Dee Dee Bridgewater; John Clayton; Mercer Ellington; Michael Feinstein; Philip Glass; Morton Gould; David Krakauer; Lar Lubovitch; Peter Martins; Mark Morris; Angel Romero; Cornel West; and Christopher Wheeldon. He has conducted Philip Glass’ opera Akhnaten at the Rotterdam Festival and Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face with Long Beach Opera in Los Angeles, and has recorded for Naxos, West German Radio, Donemus, Yarlung Records, Sono Luminus and the Composers Voice label.

Mr. Stulberg has maintained a career-long passion for the training of young musicians. He has conducted and taught at the New World Symphony, Indiana University Summer Institute, Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, New Zealand School of Music, Henry Mancini Institute, Los Angeles Philharmonic Summer Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy, American-Russian Youth Orchestra, Turkish Music StateConservatory (Istanbul), National Conservatory of Belarus (Minsk), Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), Capitol Normal University (Beijing), Shanghai Conservatory of Music and National Taiwan Normal University. In December 2019, he taught and lectured in Israel at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and Haifa University and returned to conduct its symphony orchestra in June 2024.

A native of Detroit, Mr. Stulberg is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, piano with Leonard Shure, Theodore Lettvin, William Masselos and Mischa Kottler, and viola with Ara Zerounian.

See Bio

UCLA Philharmonia

See Roster

UCLA PHILHARMONIA

Violin 1
Rubani Chugh*
Jason Chen
Ally Cho
Johannes Eberhart
Gabriel Esperon
Alisa Gukasian
Janice Hu
Makiba Kurita
Kayla Lee
Mana Tatsuki
Kelly Tsai
Erin Tsu
Helen Wang

* = concertmaster

 

Violin 2
Isaac Visoutsy*
Mattin Aframian
Alex Collins
Honor Frisco
Jonathan Han
Nina Huang
Jimin Koo
Jamily Lee
JJ Liao
Lyndsey Lipscomb
Andrew Dela Peña
Nathan Robinson
Jeremiah Youngblood

* = principal

 

Viola
James Renk*
Zara Amendt
Panithi Kachinthorn
Stefan Kosmala-Dahlbeck
Ellen Lozada
Layla Shapouri
Isaac Tin-Long Chan
Zhiyu Wang

* = principal

 

Cello
Sarah Clark*
Leon Cho
Holly Chen
Kayson Chen
Isaac Fromme
Kayleen Kim
Edward Li
Jasmine Lam
Annabelle Lo
Naohiro Nadahara
Candice Oh
Kaya Ralls
Dylan Renk
Aerie Walker
Aiden Woodruff

* = principal

 

Double Bass
Leon Simmans*
Luca Lesko
Terence Malloy
Aidan Neuman
James Shogren

* = principal

 

Flute/Piccolo
Nayeon Cho*
Katlyn Lang
Sohee Park

* = Piccolo

 

Oboe
Daniela Chavez
Khuyen Hyler
Adelle Rodkey*

* = English Horn

 

Clarinet
Nicholas Kim
Aria McCauley
Alexander Parlee
Devin Walsh

 

Bassoon
Davis Lerner*
Dani Santana
Daniel Torrero

* = Contrabassoon

 

Horn
Bryan Chiu
Em Ellis
Nathan Jones
Vasili Magaziotis
Michelle Yang

 

Trumpet
Cyrus Alva
McCartney Hutchinson
Remy Ohara

 

Trombone
Ryan Heisinger
Spencer Mar
Christopher Tam*

* = Bass Trombone

 

Tuba
Daler Babaev
Bradley Stires

 

Percussion
Robbie Darling
Kevin Needham
Frankie Peacock
Viraj Sonawala
Trey Tappan

 

Harp
Alaina Stark
Nina Zipnick

 

Piano/Celesta
Isabelle Ragsac

 

Organ
Emma Yim

See Roster

Repertoire

UCLA Philharmonia
Neal Stulberg, conductor

 

Charles Ives (1874-1954)

Ives “Three Places in New England” (c. 1911-1914)

The “St. Gaudens” in Boston Common
Putnam’s Camp
The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Intermission

Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896)

Symphony No. 4 in E flat (Romantic) (1878-1804)

Bewegt, nicht zu schnell (With motion, not too fast)
Andante, quasi allegretto
Scherzo: Bewegt (With motion) – Trio: Nicht zu schnell (Not too fast)
Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (With motion, but not too fast)

 

Donor Acknowledgement

This event is made possible by the David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund. Classical music was a passion of the Dobrows, who established a generous endowment at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music to make programs like this possible. We are proud to celebrate this program as part of the 2024 – 25 Dobrow Series.

Program Notes

UCLA PHILHARMONIA is the flagship orchestra of the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, and one of Southern California’s premiere training orchestras. Founded in 1936, Philharmonia’s music directors have included Lukas Foss, Richard Dufallo, Mehli Mehta, Samuel Krachmalnick, Alexander Treger and Jon Robertson.

 

Since 2005, Philharmonia has been led by Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies Neal Stulberg. Highlights of his tenure have included:

• Performances of symphonic works by Lera Auerbach, Anton Bruckner, Henri Dutilleux, Duke Ellington, Arthur Honegger,Witold Lutosławski, Gustav Mahler, Carl Nielsen and William Grant Still

• Annual choral/orchestral concerts at Royce Hall

• A March 2024 performance of Mahler Symphony No. 6 at Walt Disney Concert Hall

• A Disney Hall performance co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology titled A Celebration of World Music, featuring Mariachi Los Camperos di Nati Cano and works by Arturo Márquez, A. J. Racy, Ge- Ganru and James Newton

• World premiere performances of works by William Banfield, Kenny Burrell, John Clayton, Nick DePinna, Charley Harrison, Joan Huang, Hugh Levick, Llew Matthews, Patrick Williams and Erich Zeisl

• A concert/lecture co-sponsored by the UCLA Departments of Music and Evolutionary Biology titled Messiaen’s Birds: The Greatest Musicians, featuring Grammy Award-winner and UCLA faculty pianist Gloria Cheng

• Royce Hall birthday tribute concerts to Kenny Burrell, including a performance of Burrell’s The Love Suite

• Youth concerts at Royce Hall sponsored by UCLA Center for the Art of Performance’s Design for Sharing series

• Annual appearances on the Sundays Live series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater

• A Royce Hall concert featuring choral/symphonic works by Mohammed Fairouz and Alexander Krein as part of a weeklong festival titled, Listening to the Other: Mideast Musical Dialogues

• A Getty Center revival showing of the ground-breaking 1914 silent film In the Land of the Head Hunters, directed by famed photographer Edward Curtis with a restored original score by John Braham

• An acclaimed Royce Hall Halloween concert titled One Foot in the Grave

• The world premiere of UCLA Professor David Lefkowitz’s cantata, Lincoln Echoes

• A special Royce Hall performance of works by Recovered Voices composers Franz Schreker, Alexander Zemlinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, conducted by Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon

• Philharmonia’s inaugural appearance at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica

• National conducting workshops sponsored by the Conductors Guild, North America’s major service organization for conductors

• The world premiere Royce Hall performance of Ian Krouse’s Armenian Requiem

• A gala Chanukah celebration performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at Wilshire Boulevard Temple

• Biennial Schoenberg Hall concerts in collaboration with the Hear Now festival featuring programs of works by Los Angeles-area composers

• A Royce Hall concert celebrating the 30-year history of musical interchange between UCLA and musical organizations across Mexico, featuring Philharmonia, Cornel West, Arturo O’Farrill, Christoph Bull, Mariachi Los Camperos, the UCLA Afro-Latin Jazz Ensemble.

• Three commercial CDs:

– a 2012 Yarlung Records release of previously-unrecorded orchestral works by Viennese émigré composer Erich Zeisl

– a 2014 world-premiere Sono Luminus recording of Mohammed Fairouz’s Symphony No. 2 (Poems and Prayers) and his clarinet concerto Tahrir

– a 2019 Naxos recording of Ian Krouse’s Armenian Requiem

 

In recent years, Philharmonia has accompanied staged UCLA Opera productions of Verdi’s Falstaff, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, Weill’s Threepenny Opera, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, West Coast premieres of Francesco Cavalli’s Il Giasone and Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Saverio Mercadante’s I due Figaro, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna, Massenet’s Cendrillon, Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All and world premiere staged productions of Janice Hamer’s Lost Childhood and Richard Danilepour’s The Grand Hotel Tartarus.

 

UCLA Philharmonia’s CDs are available on iTunes, amazon.com, Naxos Music Library and other retail outlets.

 

If you wish to receive information about Philharmonia’s activities, please contact us by email at uclaorch@gmail.com, or visit us at www.uclaorchestras.com.