NEWS RELEASE
Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
performs concert at Severance Hall on May 9
James Feddeck conducts Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
for final Youth Orchestra program of the season
Program also includes world premiere of Gabrielle Haigh’s Poème-Rituel
2010 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winner
Jennifer Zhou is soloist in the Khachaturian Flute Concerto
CLEVELAND, April 26, 2010 – The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO) will perform its third and final Severance Hall concert of the 2009-10 season on Sunday, May 9, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. James Feddeck, in his first season as music director of the Youth Orchestra, will begin the performance with Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasia after Shakespeare, followed by Aram Khachaturian’s Flute Concerto, featuring Jennifer Zhou, the 2010 Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition winner, as soloist. Jennifer Zhou, a senior at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus, Ohio, is principal flute of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. After intermission, the program continues with the world premiere of Gabrielle Haigh’s orchestral tone poem titled Poème-Rituel. Ms. Haigh, a graduate of Laurel School in Shaker Heights now completing her first year at Princeton University, received a 2007 BMI Student Composer Award for Poème-Rituel. The program concludes with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
A Prelude Concert will be held in Reinberger Chamber Hall beginning at 1:00 p.m. The Prelude will feature chamber music performed by Youth Orchestra ensembles, and is free to concert ticket holders.
Biographical information on James Feddeck, Jennifer Zhou, and Gabrielle Haigh follows.
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Tickets cost $12 each (reserved seating). Boxes are available at $160 each (8 seats per box).
To charge tickets by telephone on American Express, Discover Card, MasterCard, and Visa, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at (216) 231-1111 or 800-686-1141 during regular ticket office hours (Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Closed Sundays and major holidays, except for those days with performances, when the Ticket Office opens three hours prior to the performance start time.). Tickets are also available online. The website offers secure ticket transactions with any major credit card and provides complete concert listings.
Please note: There are no added service charges or handling fees for concert tickets purchased through the Severance Hall Ticket Office – in person, by telephone or fax, or on the website.
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The Cleveland Youth Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), now in its 24th season, is a full, 100-member symphony orchestra of young musicians from 44 communities in 13 counties across northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The Youth Orchestra was founded in 1986 under the direction of former Cleveland Orchestra Resident Conductor Jahja Ling to provide talented young musicians with a pre-professional orchestra training experience of the highest possible artistic standard. Since that time, more than 1,000 young musicians have benefited from the unique musical experiences that COYO offers: weekly coachings with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, rehearsals and performances in historic Severance Hall, and opportunities to work with internationally renowned guest artists and conductors, including Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Yo-Yo Ma, Kurt Masur, Gil Shaham, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. As one of the best youth orchestras in the country, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra has garnered a number of prestigious accolades. Following the opening concert of the Youth Orchestra’s 2007-08 season, The Plain Dealer commented that “As the last movement [of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2] ascended to its sunny peak, the orchestra filled every corner of Severance Hall with tonal gold.” In March 2008, The Plain Dealer stated that the Youth Orchestra’s performance of the conclusion of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “shook the hall in a blaze of youthful glory.”
In June 2009, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra made its first appearances (performing four concerts) in Boston, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas, marking the first COYO tour since the Youth Orchestra’s triumphal tour performance at Carnegie Hall in 2001.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is supported by generous grants from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and many other donors. Endowment support is provided by The George Gund Foundation and Christine Gitlin Miles.
Each of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra’s concerts this season have been or will be broadcast on subsequent dates by WCLV 104.9 FM. The May 9 concert will be broadcast on Sunday, July 11, at 4:00 p.m. A Saturday broadcast date has yet to be determined.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra is part of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Community Music Initiative, a broad array of educational programs designed to foster a love of music and a lifetime of participation in the musical arts, and to provide greater access to orchestral music to more of Cleveland’s citizens than ever before. New this year, Cleveland Orchestra musicians use music to help children at local Head Start sites learn school readiness skills as part of the PNC Grow up Great program; Cleveland Orchestra musicians who are MusicMentors support school string programs in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District; and the MusicMasters program draws on the expertise of Orchestra musicians to offer clinics, masterclasses, and coaching throughout the region. Other educational programs include Cleveland Orchestra Education Concerts (which bring more than 16,000 school children to Severance Hall each year), the Learning Through Music school partnership program, Concert Previews, the Student Advantage Program for college students, Music Study Groups for adults, and several programs to nurture aspiring young musicians (Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Youth Chorus, and Children’s Chorus). For more information about any of these programs, call the Orchestra’s Department of Education and Community Programs at (216) 231-7355, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.
Calendar Listing
Sunday, May 9, 2010, at 2:00 p.m.
(Prelude Concert at 1:00 p.m. featuring chamber music performed by members of the Youth Orchestra)
Severance Hall
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA YOUTH ORCHESTRA
James Feddeck, conductor
Jennifer Zhou, flute
TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet
KHACHATURIAN Flute Concerto
GABRIELLE HAIGH Poème-Rituel (World Premiere)
BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
Tickets: $12 (reserved seating). Call (216) 231-1111 or 1-800-686-1141, or order online.
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Press Contacts: Jennifer Schlosser, (216) 231-7518; Email: jschlosser@clevelandorchestra.com
Ana Papakhian, Office: (216) 231-7476; Cell phone: (216) 370-2595; Email: anap@clevelandorchestra.com
James Feddeck
Music Director, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
Assistant Conductor, Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Endowed Chair, The Cleveland Orchestra
James Feddeck is in his first season as an assistant conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, having been appointed by Franz Welser-Möst in March 2009. As assistant conductor, Mr. Feddeck conducts Education, Family, and other concerts and serves as cover conductor for Severance Hall and Blossom Festival subscription concerts. He also helps oversee the editing of archival recordings of concerts and provide assistance to Franz Welser-Möst. Mr. Feddeck made his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in a Blossom Festival concert in August 2009, as an Aspen Academy Conductor.
As music director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Mr. Feddeck leads the ensemble in weekly rehearsals and will conduct its 2009-10 season three-concert series in Severance Hall, concerts in the Cleveland area, and a performance for Severance Hall’s Community Open House Day in January 2010. In March, he also will conduct the Youth Orchestra in a side-by-side concert with The Cleveland Orchestra, for high-school students.
James Feddeck came to Cleveland from his prior position as assistant conductor of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. During his two-season tenure in Memphis, he developed and conducted subscription programs, educational concerts, and community programs, and served as an advocate for music education.
This past summer, Mr. Feddeck served as assistant conductor at the Aspen Music Festival and School. A conducting fellow for three summers at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with Murry Sidlin and David Zinman, James Feddeck received the Aspen Conducting Prize in 2008. He was awarded the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize in 2007 and was nominated for the Glimmerglass Opera Conducting Prize in 2006. In addition, he was the unanimous winner of the Sixth Vakhtang Jordania International Conducting Competition and, at twenty-two, its youngest participant.
Mr. Feddeck’s musical training and background is unusually diverse and multifaceted. He holds the distinction of having been admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in four areas: piano, oboe, organ, and conducting. While at Oberlin, he was music director and conductor of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Following undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin, where he studied conducting with Steven Smith, Timothy Weiss, and Bridget-Michaele Reischl, Mr. Feddeck continued his studies in conducting at the University of Michigan, working with Kenneth Kiesler. He has participated in conducting masterclasses at Aspen with Patrick Summers, Harry Bicket, and James Conlon.
An accomplished organist, Mr. Feddeck has performed recitals throughout Europe and North America and has won competitions sponsored by the American Guild of Organists. As an oboist, he has taken a special interest in new music, having commissioned and premiered works including Daniel Pinkham’s Oboe Quartet.
Recent conducting engagements include appearances at the Aspen Music Festival with artists including Misha Dichter and Cho-Liang Lin, Cleveland Institute of Music, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (with soloist Yo-Yo Ma), and return performances with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
Jennifer Zhou
Jennifer Zhou, a 17-year-old flutist born in Shanghai, China, is a senior at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus, Ohio. She is in her third season as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, and has performed as principal flute in various works each season. She participated in the 2008 American String Teachers Association National High School Honors Orchestra and the Interlochen World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Recently, Jennifer was named a winner of the 2010 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Award for flute. She placed first in the 2009 National Flute Association High School Soloist Competition, received the YoungArts Honorable Mention Award given by the 2010 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and was a finalist in the 2010 Astral Artists National Auditions. In 2009, Jennifer won the second annual “The President’s Own” Marine Band Concerto Competition and the opportunity to perform with the Marine Band in a Young People’s Concert. She placed second in the 2009 MTNA Senior Woodwind Competition and has been featured on NPR’s From the Top. Jennifer was first place winner in the 2004 MTNA Junior Woodwind Competition as well as the COFA Junior and Senior Competitions. In addition to her studies under Beth Owen in Columbus, Jennifer studies with Bonita Boyd, professor of flute at the Eastman School of Music, and Martha Aarons, freelance musician and former Cleveland Orchestra member. Jennifer has attended summer camps including Interlochen, the Oberlin Flute Institute, and the Kennedy Center’s National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute. She will be participating in the Aspen Music Festival this summer and attending the Eastman School of Music in the fall, as a recipient of the prestigious Lois Smith Rogers Scholarship.
Gabrielle Haigh
Gabrielle Haigh, composer, is a seventeen-year-old freshman at Princeton University, where she is majoring in Classics. She began piano, theory, and composition lessons at the age of five with her grandmother, Mary Ann Griebling. She is a member of the Princeton University Chamber Choir, Glee Club, and Composers’ Consortium. She has studied voice with Barbara Rearick at Princeton, and in Cleveland with Marla Berg, and studied cello for six years with Kent Collier. Gabrielle won BMI Student Composer Awards for her Symphony No. 1 in 2009, composed at age 16, and for her orchestral tone poem, Poème-Rituel in 2007, composed at age 14. She has also won three Morton Gould Young Composer Awards from ASCAP (2005, 2006, and 2007) and an honorable mention in 2009. She is the only student to have won first prizes in each of the three pre-college divisions of the Music Teachers’ National Association composition contest, and has won numerous other awards at state, regional, and national levels from the National Federation of Music Clubs. Poème-Rituel will be premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, James Feddeck conducting, at Severance Hall on Gabrielle’s eighteenth birthday, May 9, 2010.
In 2006, Gabrielle received favorable reviews as soprano soloist with the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Marvin Hamlisch’s Anatomy of Peace. She was invited back in 2007 to sing the soprano solo in Richard Wagner’s Kinder-Katechismus. For three seasons, she was a member of Apollo’s Musettes, a group of young vocal soloists who perform and record with Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. She has twice been one of seven national voice finalists in the MTNA senior level competitions. She sang for five seasons in the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus and for two seasons as a member and soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus.
A graduate of Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Gabrielle was named Phi Beta Kappa award winner by the faculty. She was elected to the Cum Laude Society, and was a National Merit Finalist and a “Senior Stand-out” award winner from The Plain Dealer. Gabrielle’s father, Scott Haigh, serves as First Assistant Principal Bass in The Cleveland Orchestra.
In the fall of 2010, Gabrielle will begin her studies at the University of Cambridge in England, where she will read Classics. She has been offered a Choral Exhibition Award by the renowned Clare College Choir, with which she will record and tour internationally.
