TZAM
For symphonic orchestra

• Born: December 20, 1964, Mexico City, Mexico
• Work Composed: 2021–22
• Premiere: This weekend’s concerts are the work’s world premiere.
• Instrumentation: 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets (incl. D trumpet), 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, crotales, 2 crash cymbals, gong, marimba, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tams, tubular bells, vibraphone, whip, strings
• Duration: approx. 18 minutes

Her water washes air,
her breathing—wakes the sun.
She has a name that can be found in every tongue
But the earth is not her name.
The earth refuses to be tamed
—Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Due to circumstances that are entirely personal, heartfelt emotion is conveyed in TZAM through a musical discourse that is deeply rooted in the experiences life has to offer. Over the past two years, I have lost my father and two dear friends who were fundamental not only to me, but to musical development in Latin America: Carmen Helena Téllez, an orchestra conductor and tireless promoter of contemporary Latin American music, and Mario Lavista, my mentor and professor of musical composition. Somehow, as I began to compose TZAM, I found it impossible to ignore what I felt was a pressing need to express my gratitude toward all of them through music.

Dedicated to the memory of Mario Lavista, TZAM means “dialogue” in Ayapaneco, one of more than 60 indigenous languages found in Mexico today, although, with fewer than ten speakers, it is lamentably on the verge of extinction. I chose TZAM as a title not only for its attractive sound, but also because implicit in its meaning is our ability to converse and dialogue, not only with all that surrounds us and nourishes us as human beings within this secret, timeless space, but also—and above all—with what it means to be a human being on this Earth.

Starting with dialogue as a primary concept, I decided to position the brass section differently, dividing it into two instrumental groups situated across from one another in a circular fashion, so that a stereophonic exchange of ideas could arise among them. With the brass in this unusual configuration, I thought it would be fitting to begin with a fanfare. This material acts as a leitmotif or recurring idée fixe. Immediately afterward, I carefully chose the main axes of harmony and textured timbre for each of the sections. I then tried to emulate the idea of an ocean of sounds—its rising and ebbing tides acting time and again as a colorful harmonic and instrumental surprise.

The central portion of TZAM includes the introduction of new musical material as a personal tribute to remind us of the intimate, delicate realm of Lavista’s music. It features a surprising and contrasting adagio for strings that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, originated in a genuine attempt to dialogue with Carmen, with Mario, and with my father, perhaps for the last time. Finally, a brief epilogue appears, in which I revisit the beginning of the work, thus reviving the original concept that sparked its development.

—Gabriela Ortiz

Read More from Gabriela Ortiz

Symphony No. 7 in E Major

• Born: September 4, 1825 in Ansfelden, Upper Austria
• Died: October 11, 1896 in Vienna, Austria
• Work Composed: September 1881-September 1883
• Premiere: December 30, 1884, Arthur Nikisch conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Theodore Thomas and his orchestra introduced the work to the United States at a concert given in Chicago on July 29, 1886.
• Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 4 Wagner tuben (2 tenor, 2 bass), timpani, crash cymbals, triangle, strings
• CSO Notable Performances: First Performance: December 1916, Ernst Kunwald conducting. Most Recent: March 2014, Louis Langrée conducting. Recorded twice by the CSO: In 1967 conducted by Max Rudolf and in 1989 conducted by Jesús López Cobos.
• Duration: approx. 65 min.

Bruckner marched to his own drummer. He didn’t conform to other people’s expectations as to what a composer should be like or how he should behave, and he did not articulate his artistic ideas verbally. That doesn’t mean, however, that those ideas were necessarily any less cogent or, for that matter, any less “timely.” In fact, in an era obsessed with innovation versus traditionalism (which is what the respective champions of Wagner and Brahms were endlessly debating), Bruckner created a unique synthesis between those two concepts. He was considered part of the Wagner “camp,” and there was probably no one in his generation who felt Wagner’s music more deeply and responded to it with more originality than he. Yet if he stood with one foot in the world of Zukunftsmusik (“the music of the future”), his other foot was planted firmly in the Austrian Catholic tradition into which he was born. He was marked for life by the monumental monastery of St. Florian, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture whose origins go back far into the Middle Ages. In addition, this great organist and church composer who was deeply touched by the sensuality of Tristan und Isolde had acquired some of his earliest musical experiences as a fiddle player at village weddings, gaining an intimate knowledge of Austrian folk music—a knowledge manifest in several of Bruckner’s scherzo movements. 

Bruckner began work on his Seventh Symphony on September 23, 1881—exactly 20 days after completing his Sixth. At 57, he had just enjoyed the first truly important success of his career when, in February of that year, Hans Richter gave a highly acclaimed performance of the Fourth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. (The Philharmonic had earlier rejected the Second and Third symphonies.) At this point he had been teaching organ, counterpoint and harmony in Vienna for 13 years; among the many young musicians he had inspired was a teenage Gustav Mahler. The previous year (summer of 1880) Bruckner had undertaken a trip to Switzerland, where he played on many great church organs but also took a train from Geneva to Chamonix, near Mont Blanc. The view of the highest peak of the Alps must have been on his mind as he was embarking on his next monumental symphony—although Bruckner never said so explicitly.

Bruckner temporarily set the first movement aside to compose the scherzo, which he must have considered an easier task. Having completed the first draft of the scherzo in July of 1882, he traveled to Bayreuth to attend the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal. It was the last time he saw his idol. Upon his return to Vienna, he took up the first movement again. It is, then, hardly a coincidence that in its finished form, the opening movement is full of Wagnerian quotations, some veiled, some more overt. Commentators have detected echoes from Tristan, Parsifal and Tannhäuser. Music analyst Graham Phipps sees the whole first movement as “Bruckner’s free application of strict Sechterian theory with stimulation from Wagnerian sources”—Simon Sechter being the professor who had taught Bruckner counterpoint. The synthesis between traditional church style and “the music of the future” was complete.

The first movement rests on three mighty pillars, three distinct thematic groups. The first is a soaring cello melody against some quintessentially Brucknerian tremolos in the violins. The second is a singing theme marked ruhig, introduced by the woodwind with accompanying horns and trumpets. Finally, the third, appearing after the first of many powerful crescendo surges, is a predominantly rhythmic idea, presented by strings and woodwinds. (They play slightly different variants of the theme simultaneously.) These three different characters start to interact in a development section that doesn’t really “develop” in the classical sense. Instead of the increasing level of activity one finds in classical developments, the music actually becomes slower and more fragmented, but then it suddenly erupts in a “molto animato” section. The ascending motive of the opening is here turned upside down, its serene E major becomes a dramatic C minor, and instead of being played in the warm singing tone of the cellos, it is blasted forth by the entire orchestra, further amplified by canonic imitation. From C minor, the tonality rises through the keys of D and E-flat until E major is reached again for a contrapuntally enriched recapitulation of all three thematic groups. The recapitulation ends with a fortissimo climax followed by a sehr feierlich coda. It is only here that the kettledrum is heard for the very first time in the symphony. The tremolo of the timpani lasts a full 52 measures, increasing, decreasing and rising again in volume, as the rest of the orchestra brings the movement to its stunning conclusion.

On one of the rare occasions he revealed something of his feelings in verbal form, Bruckner told his former student, the conductor Felix Mottl, about the impulse that led to the composition of the sublime Adagio of the Seventh Symphony:

One day I came home and felt very sad. The thought had crossed my mind that before long the Master [Wagner] would die, and then the C-sharp minor theme of the Adagio came to me.

For this solemn theme, Bruckner used a quartet of Wagner tubas, the special instruments Wagner had devised for his Ring cycle. It was the first time another composer had employed these tubas, created to evoke the gods of Valhalla and to portray many dramatic moments involving death. Without a doubt, it was the premonition of Wagner’s death that prompted the use of these grave, yet eloquently singing instruments. The tuba melody is continued by the string section, the violins required to use the dark-hued G string. Structurally, the movement was influenced by the Adagio of Beethoven’s Ninth, in which a slow thematic group in 4/4 time alternates with a slightly faster one in 3/4. Bruckner’s deeply sensual second theme, which is in F-sharp major, follows another mighty orchestral surge culminating in a fortissimo passage for the entire orchestra. It is after such antecedents that the almost dance-like gracefulness of this theme takes its full effect. The Wagner-tuba theme then returns in a more elaborate form than before, with new countersubjects, varied and expanded, culminating in a glorious outburst in the bright key of G major. The second theme, a half-step higher (A-flat major), also gains in coloristic detail on second hearing. Yet the high point of the entire movement comes when the Wagner tubas begin their theme for the third time. This time, a crescendo more astonishing than anything that has gone before brings us to the full radiance of C major, a moment of arrival marked by the work’s only cymbal crash, appearing exactly at midpoint in the hour-long symphony.*

According to the authoritative Bruckner expert and editor of the symphonies, Leopold Nowak (1904-1991), the composer had progressed this far when he received news of Wagner’s death on February 13, 1883. During the “unwinding” that follows the C-major climax, a horn motive filled with extreme pain (marked “triple forte”) expresses Bruckner’s sadness more clearly than words could ever do.

The scherzo, as mentioned before, was composed before the Adagio. As with Bruckner’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies, the scherzo of the Seventh is in a minor key, which immediately undermines the humorous character one habitually expects of scherzos—a character evident from the fast tempo and dance rhythms. There is a fundamental ambiguity between playfulness and a certain menacing quality that comes to the fore in some harsh dissonances and the predominance of the brass. Contrary to the norm, which demands that the minor mode be softened by major at the end of the first formal unit, Bruckner modulates from one minor key (A minor) to another (C minor). A mysterious timpani solo serves as a link between the various sections of the scherzo proper, as well as between the scherzo and the slower, more genial trio. The latter, which finally brings major-mode relief, begins with a singing violin melody over a long-held pedal note in the bass. Fleeting memories of the scherzo’s trumpet motive ruffle the smooth surface of the music, as some intensely Wagnerian modulations complicate the initially simple and folk-like melody. The A-minor scherzo is then repeated in its entirety.

Finding the appropriate ending was always one of the most difficult problems Bruckner had to face in his symphonies. Finales were expected to resolve all the tensions that had accumulated in the course of the first three movements and to bring about the climax of the entire work. This became harder and harder to do as symphonies reached increasing levels of complexity. By no means restricted to Bruckner, the problem was first felt by Beethoven who introduced a chorus and four vocal soloists in the last movement of his Ninth. Brahms found a very different but equally original solution when he turned to the solemn Baroque form of passacaglia to crown his final symphony, the Fourth.

Bruckner’s answer in his Seventh perplexed even some of his most enthusiastic supporters. Both the composer Hugo Wolf and the conductor Hermann Levi found certain parts of the finale “incomprehensible,” though both eventually came to appreciate its unique beauty. There has been a lingering feeling that the master had not quite managed to repeat the achievement in his Fifth Symphony, of whose magnificent contrapuntal finale Bruckner himself was proud. Even though the Seventh has its share of fanfares at the end, many commentators have felt the triumph to be less than complete. At 13 minutes against the first movement’s 22, it is much smaller even in size.

Yet the finale of the Seventh is unusual for reasons other than its length. Its structure is not the usual sonata form but something called Bogenform (“arch form”) in German, which means that in the recapitulation, the three thematic groups return in reverse order: A-B-C becomes C-B-A. The character of Bruckner’s three thematic groups is as follows: “A” is resolute but understated, like a biblical “still small voice.” “B” is a religious chorale with Tristan-like chromatic harmonies, while “C” is a variant of “A” where the voice becomes powerful and triumphant as the Wagner tubas are heard again. Both “A” and “C” are, by the way, closely related to the opening motive of the first movement. However, in the finale the rhythmic profile of this motive is considerably sharpened through the use of the so-called “double-dotted” pattern (the long and short notes of the pattern are in the ratio of 7:1 instead of 3:1, as they were in the first movement). By reversing “A” and “C” in the recapitulation, Bruckner allows the more subdued form of the theme to have the last word, and even though the theme gains a lot of power, especially in the coda, the tempo remains emphatically bewegt, doch nicht schnell (“with motion, but not too fast”). The coda of the finale brings back the opening motive of the first movement in its original form, in addition to its transformations. As at the end of the first movement, the timpani enters after a long silence with an extended tremolo over which unfold the concluding measures of the symphony.

Bruckner finished his Seventh during the first days of September 1883. Arthur Nikisch, one of the great conductors of the time, played it through on two pianos with Bruckner’s student and enthusiastic promoter, Josef Schalk. He immediately decided to perform it with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. This performance was followed by numerous others in many cities of Europe as well as the U.S., where it was introduced only a year and a half after the world premiere. The Seventh became, without a doubt, the greatest success of Bruckner’s life. The composer submitted it to King Ludwig of Bavaria, who had been Wagner’s great benefactor, and the King accepted the dedication. As Bruckner reported to a friend in Linz, Hermann Levi had called the symphony “the most important symphonic work since 1827” [the year of Beethoven’s death]. Levi called the symphony a Wunderwerk [“wonderful work”] that was the “crowning event” of his career as a conductor. This is no small praise from the man who had conducted the first performance of Parsifal in Bayreuth!

After these triumphs, Bruckner’s home city of Vienna finally gave him his due as well: in 1886, he received a high decoration from the Imperial Court and, on September 23 of that year, he was received by the Emperor Franz Joseph I. The monarch asked the composer if he had any wishes. Bruckner, who was definitely not good with words, replied (and we have to imagine this in his flavorful Upper Austrian dialect): “Your Majesty, will you graciously forbid [music critic Eduard] Hanslick to write so badly about me.”

* Some conductors and scholars omit the cymbal crash on the grounds that, in the original manuscript, the cymbal part is crossed out and the words gilt nicht (“not valid”) are written over it. According to the prevailing consensus, however, those words were not written by Bruckner and therefore, the cymbal crash has been reinstated and is usually included, as it is in the present performances.

—Peter Laki

Music Director, Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Louis Langrée has been Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 2013, Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center since 2003 and recently appointed Director of Théâtre national de l'Opéra Comique. Known for imaginative programming, Langrée began his Cincinnati tenure with Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire with Eighth Blackbird; Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait, narrated by Maya Angelou; and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Two of his Cincinnati recordings were Grammy-nominated for Best Orchestral Performance: Transatlantic, with works by Varèse, Gershwin, and Stravinsky; and Concertos for Orchestra, featuring world premieres by Sebastian Currier, Thierry Escaich, and Zhou Tian. His Pelléas et Mélisande trilogy contrasted settings by Fauré, Debussy, and Schoenberg. A multi-season Beethoven [R]evolution cycle has paired the symphonies with world premieres and 20th-century masterworks, as well as recreation of the legendary 1808 Akademie. During the COVID pandemic, Langrée was a catalyst for the Orchestra’s return to the stage in the fall of 2020 with a series of digitally streamed concerts, and then in January 2021 welcoming in-person audiences to Music Hall.

Between the start of his tenure and the conclusion of the CSO’s upcoming 2021-22 season, Langrée and the CSO will have commissioned or co-commissioned 36 new orchestral works and he will have conducted 30 premieres from a wide range of composers, including Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Jennifer Higdon, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Kinds of Kings, David Lang, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe., and the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6, his final opus. Langrée and the Orchestra also commissioned 20 composers to write solo instrument fanfares for CSO musicians during the COVID pandemic, including Michael Abels, Marcos Balter, Peter Boyer, Courtney Bryan, Bryce Dessner, Ted Hearne, Tyshawn Sorey, Georgia Stitt and Du Yun, whose new works were premiered on the Orchestra’s website.

To date, Langrée has appointed 17 of the Orchestra’s musicians, including hiring Stefani Matsuo as the Orchestra’s first female Concertmaster. Other appointments include Associate Principal Percussion, Associate Principal Second Violin, First Assistant Concertmaster, Assistant Principal Horn, Principal Tuba, Principal Clarinet, Second/Assistant Principal Trombone, Principal Bassoon, Second Flute, Second Oboe, three section violists, two section violins, and a section cellist. In the coming season, there will be auditions for Associate Principal Timpani and section percussion, Associate Concertmaster, Associate Principal Flute, Piccolo, and Section Bass. Langrée has also worked closely with the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows, mentoring them individually and welcoming them to perform within the Orchestra.

A regular presence at Lincoln Center since his 1998 debut, Langrée has conducted around 250 concerts and productions, including more than 50 Metropolitan Opera performances; has taught Juilliard School masterclasses; appeared with the CSO as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series; and made his New York Philharmonic guest conducting debut in March, 2020. Langrée has raised the artistic profile and repertoire of the Festival Orchestra well beyond the classical period, from Lully to Magnus Lindberg.

An advocate for the music of our time, Langrée has conducted premieres by Julia Adolphe, Daníel Bjarnason, Anna Clyne, Jonathan Bailey Holland, David Lang, Nico Muhly, André Previn, Caroline Shaw, and Julia Wolfe among numerous others including, with the CSO, the world premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Symphony No. 6, the composer’s final opus. Among the many period-instrument ensembles he has worked with are the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Freiburg Baroque, Concerto Köln, and Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.

Louis Langrée has guest conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, and Leipzig Gewandhaus among others. In addition to the Met, he frequently conducts at the leading opera houses including the Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Bavarian Staatsoper, and at festivals including Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Langrée was previously music director of the Orchestre de Picardie, Opéra National de Lyon, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and chief conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. A native of Alsace, France, he is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

I fell in love with music once I understood that sounds have souls, and it is through them that one may speak of oneself.
Gabriela Ortiz

Latin Grammy-nominated Gabriela Ortiz is one of Mexico’s foremost composers and one of the most vibrant musicians emerging on the international scene. Her musical language achieves an extraordinary and expressive synthesis of tradition and the avant-garde by combining high art, folk music and jazz in novel, frequently refined, and always personal ways. Her compositions are credited for being both entertaining and immediate as well as profound and sophisticated; she achieves a balance between highly organized structure and improvisatory spontaneity.

Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, called her recent work Téenek “one of the most brilliant I have ever directed. Its color, its texture, the harmony and the rhythm that it contains are all something unique. Gabriela possesses a particular capacity to showcase our Latin identity.”

Ortiz has written music for dance, theater and cinema, and has actively collaborated with poets, playwrights and historians. Her creative process focuses on the connections between gender issues, social justice, environmental concerns and the burden of racism, as well as the phenomenon of multiculturality caused by globalization, technological development, and mass migrations. She has composed three operas, for all of which interdisciplinary collaboration has been a vital experience. Notably, these operas are framed by political contexts of great complexity, such as the drug war in Only the Truth, illegal migration between Mexico and the United States in Ana and Her Shadow, and the violation of university autonomy during the student movement of 1968 in Firefly.

Ortiz is based in Mexico, and her music has been commissioned and performed all over the world by prestigious ensembles, soloists and orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel and Esa-Pekka Salonen, Zoltán Kocsis, Carlos Miguel Prieto, the Kroumata and Amadinda percussion ensembles, the Kronos Quartet, Dawn Upshaw, Sarah Leonard, the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Pierre Amoyal, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Quartet, the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Simón Bolívar, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Recent premieres include Yanga and Téenek, both pieces commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, Luciérnaga (“Firefly,” her third opera) commissioned and produced by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Únicamente la Verdad (“Only the Truth,” her first opera) with Long Beach Opera and Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico.

Ortiz has been honored with the National Prize for Arts and Literature, the most prestigious award for writers and artists granted by the government of Mexico, and she has been inducted into the Mexican Academy of the Arts. Other honors include the Bellagio Center Residency Program, Civitella Ranieri Artistic Residency; a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; a Fulbright Fellowship; first prize in the Silvestre Revueltas National Chamber Music Competition; first prize in the Alicia Urreta Composition Competition; a Banff Center for the Arts residency; the Inroads Commission (a program of Arts International with funds from the Ford Foundation); a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation; and the Mozart Medal Award.

Ortiz was born in Mexico City and her parents were musicians in the renowned folk music ensemble Los Folkloristas, founded in 1966 to preserve and record the traditional music of Mexico and Latin America. She trained with the eminent composer Mario Lavista at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and with Federico Ibarra at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). In 1990 she was awarded the British Council Fellowship to study in London with Robert Saxton at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1992 she received a scholarship from UNAM to complete her Ph.D. studies in electroacoustic music composition with Simon Emmerson at The City University in London.

Ortiz currently teaches composition at UNAM in Mexico City and is a visiting professor at Indiana University. Her music is currently published by Schott, Ediciones Mexicanas de Música, Saxiana Presto, and Tre Fontane.

LOUIS LANGRÉE, CSO Music Director
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, Pops Conductor
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Matthias Pintscher, CSO Creative Partner

Damon Gupton, Pops Principal Guest Conductor

François López-Ferrer, CSO Associate Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Associate Conductor

Wilbur Lin, Pops Assistant Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Assistant Conductor

FIRST VIOLINS

Stefani Matsuo
Concertmaster
—Anna Sinton Taft Chair

Charles Morey
Acting Associate Concertmaster
—Tom & Dee Stegman Chair

Philip Marten
First Assistant Concertmaster
—James M. Ewell Chair++

Eric Bates
Second Assistant Concertmaster
—Serge Shababian Chair

Kathryn Woolley
—Nicholas Tsimaras–Peter G. Courlas Chair++

Anna Reider
—Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair

Mauricio Aguiar§

Minyoung Baik

James Braid
—Marc Bohlke Chair given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke

Michelle Edgar Dugan

Rebecca Kruger Fryxell
Clifford J. Goosmann and Andrea M. Wilson Chair

Gerald Itzkoff
—Jean Ten Have Chair

Lois Reid Johnson
—Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair++

Sylvia Mitchell
—Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair

Luo-Jia Wu

SECOND VIOLINS

Gabriel Pegis
Principal
—Al Levinson Chair

Yang Liu*
—Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair

Scott Mozlin**
—Henry Meyer Chair

Kun Dong

Cheryl Benedict

Evin Blomberg§

Rachel Charbel
—Ida Ringling North Chair

Elizabeth Furuta†

Chika Kinderman

Hyesun Park

Paul Patterson
—Charles Gausmann Chair++

Stacey Woolley
—Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair++

VIOLAS

Christian Colberg
Principal
—Louise D. & Louis Nippert Chair

Paul Frankenfeld*
—Grace M. Allen Chair

Julian Wilkison**

Rebecca Barnes§

Christopher Fischer

Stephen Fryxell
—Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair

Caterina Longhi

Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera

Joanne Wojtowicz

CELLOS

Ilya Finkelshteyn
Principal
—Irene & John J. Emery Chair

Daniel Culnan*
—Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Norman Johns**
—Karl & Roberta Schlachter Family Chair

Matthew Lad§
—Marvin Kolodzik Chair

Susan Marshall-Petersen
—Laura Kimble McLellan Chair++

Hiro Matsuo

Theodore Nelson
—Peter G. Courlas–Nicholas Tsimaras Chair++

Alan Rafferty
—Ruth F. Rosevear Chair

BASSES

Owen Lee
Principal
—Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair++

James Lambert*
—Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Matthew Zory, Jr.**+
—Trish & Rick Bryan Chair

Boris Astafiev§

Ronald Bozicevich
—Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair

Rick Vizachero

HARP

Gillian Benet Sella
Principal
—Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair

FLUTES

Randolph Bowman
Principal
—Charles Frederic Goss Chair

Henrik Heide*†

Haley Bangs
—Jane & David Ellis Chair

PICCOLO

[OPEN]
—Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair

OBOES

Dwight Parry
Principal
—Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair

Lon Bussell*
—Stephen P. McKean Chair

Emily Beare

ENGLISH HORN

Christopher Philpotts
Principal
—Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh Chair+

CLARINETS

Christopher Pell
Principal
—Emma Margaret & Irving D. Goldman Chair

Joseph Morris*
Associate Principal and Eb Clarinet
—Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair++

Ixi Chen
Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in Honor of William A. Friedlander

BASS CLARINET

Ronald Aufmann

BASSOONS

Christopher Sales
Principal
—Emalee Schavel Chair++

Martin Garcia*

Hugh Michie

CONTRABASSOON

Jennifer Monroe

FRENCH HORNS

Elizabeth Freimuth
Principal
—Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair

[OPEN]*
—Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair

Molly Norcross**
Acting Associate Principal
—Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney

Lisa Conway
—Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair

Duane Dugger
—Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair

Charles Bell

TRUMPETS

Robert Sullivan
Principal
—Rawson Chair

Douglas Lindsay*
—Jackie & Roy Sweeney Family Chair

Steven Pride
—Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair++

Christopher Kiradjieff

TROMBONES

Cristian Ganicenco
Principal
—Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair

Joseph Rodriguez**
Second/Assistant Principal Trombone

BASS TROMBONE

Peter Norton

TUBA

Christopher Olka
Principal
—Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair

TIMPANI

Patrick Schleker
Principal
—Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair

Michael Culligan
Acting Associate Principal

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

PERCUSSION

David Fishlock
Principal
—Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair

Michael Culligan*

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

Marc Wolfley+

KEYBOARDS

Michael Chertock
—James P. Thornton Chair

Julie Spangler+
—James P. Thornton Chair

CSO/CCM DIVERSITY FELLOWS

Maalik Glover, violin

Mwakudua waNgure, violin

Tyler McKisson, viola

Javier Otalora, viola

Max Oppeltz-Carroz, cello

Luis Parra, cello

Samantha Powell, cello

Luis Celis Avila, bass

Amy Nickler, bass

LIBRARIANS

Christina Eaton
Acting Principal Librarian
—Lois Klein Jolson Chair

Elizabeth Dunning
Acting Associate Principal Librarian

Adam Paxson
Interim Assistant Librarian

STAGE MANAGERS

Brian P. Schott

Phillip T. Sheridan

Daniel Schultz

Andrew Sheridan

§ Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within the string section.

*  Associate Principal

**  Assistant Principal

† One-year appointment

‡ Leave of absence

+ Cincinnati Pops rhythm section

++ CSO endowment only

~ Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation