ASO chosen for 2009-10 Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington

The Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington is proud to announce that Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has been selected to be featured in the 2009-10 Catalogue. A panel of 90 experts from area foundations, corporate giving programs, larger non-profit organizations, and the DC government evaluated nearly 240 applications; the ASO is one of 68 outstanding nonprofits to be featured this year.

About the ASO, from the Catalogue:

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra combines a commitment to artistic excellence with a dedication to entertaining and educating a wide range of audience members -- from the seasoned subscribers to the 8-year-old attending a concert for the first time. Generous discounts for seniors, students, families, and youth organizations (Girl Scouts can earn a participation patch!); a free-ticket program for at-risk youth; select free concerts; a main location near four large retirement communities; and popular daytime events make ASO concerts accessible to committed music lovers and tentative music explorers alike. And the programming is fresh and innovative: recent seasons have included collaborations with visual artists, theater, choral, dance, and opera companies. In addition to its evening and matinee concert series, ASO offers an annual children's holiday concert; school-day concerts for Alexandria City's third- through sixth-graders that conclude a collaborative, year-long music and art curriculum; and a serious mentoring program for high school musicians.

ASO and you: beautiful music together.

About the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington:
Now in its seventh year, the Catalogue has become a trusted intermediary connecting smaller, community-based organizations with individual and foundation donors. According to Barbara Harman, President and Editor of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington, "We know that nonprofits have had a very difficult year. For most, contributions are flat or down, and the decrease or loss of foundation and government funding has created significant budgetary challenges. Individual donors can make a real difference this year, keeping great organizations afloat during these tough times.” The Catalogue enables smaller non-profits to tell their stories to individuals who would otherwise never hear them, and to encourage those individuals to give. It also provides charities with a stamp of approval that tells donors they can invest with confidence because the Catalogue vets its family of nonprofits with great care.

20,000 individuals and hundreds of family foundations will receive copies of the catalogue this year, and the new catalogue website (cfp-dc.org), which launches on November 1, includes a gift registry and gift cards, and a section especially for kids.

Since its inception in 2003, the catalogue has helped raise over $9.5 million dollars for deserving, local, non-profit organizations. "Charities were selected for excellence, cost-effectiveness, and impact" Harman said. “These are certainly among the best community-based nonprofits in the Washington region.”

First concert of the season a great success

The positive response to our first concert of the 09-10 season has been overwhelming!

Thanks to amazing solo performances by pianist Carlos Rodriguez, (pictured, at left, with ASO Executive Director Adrien Finlay) violinist Leonid Sushansky, and the whole ASO orchestra, the Sept. 26 concert was a smashing success. (Despite a driving rain and one musician who couldn't make it because of a car accident on the way!)

The audience was brought to its feet at the end of Rodriguez's rousing performance of Gershwin's "Piano Concerto in F" and then, as an encore, he performed Debussy's lovely "Clair de Lune."

We have not stopped taking calls from raving audience members since.

Thank yous must be made to Music Director Kim Allen Kluge, all the musicians, SOLA volunteers, Tara Conte, and Key Club volunteers from T.C. Williams High School (pictured at left). And, thank you to Susan Cavanaugh for the great photos!

The next one is coming up on us soon! See you Nov. 14 with marcolivia!


--Merrie

Leonid Sushansky: Born to make music

Leonid Sushansky was born to make music.

The violinist will be a solo guest performer on the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra’s opening night performance of Vivaldi’s “Summer” and “Autumn” from The Four Seasons on Sat., Sept. 26. He is the son of violinist Rimma Sushanskaya, who was already a successful solo violinist in the Soviet Union when Sushansky was born. She was one of the last students of the famous violinist David Oistrakh, a prize-winner, conservatory teacher and internationally acclaimed touring musician.

“My first memory of the violin is imaginary,” Sushansky said. “My mother played before I was born, and when she was pregnant with me, so I had music piped in from the very start. When I was a baby, I had music all around me. When I was a little kid, I used to pick up sticks and imagine I was playing.”

However, violin lessons didn’t come naturally to the mother-son pair right away, and eventually, at age 7, little Leonid started classes at a local school.
“They tried to start me at 6, but I didn’t have the attention span. I guess I wasn’t careful, or paying attention, and broke a couple of violins.”

Practicing never came easy for him, he said, but once he took the stage, his fate as a performing violinist was sealed.

“When I go on stage, it’s almost like being transformed into a different person,” he said. “In fact, when I was in the fourth grade -- 7 or 8 (years old) -- I was in a competition and one of my teachers was in the audience and didn’t recognize me.”
It was about that time that his mother began attempting to get permission to leave St. Petersburg and move to New York City. It was a long and difficult process.

“We were trying to leave Russia, and for a number of years we were refused. When people were denied the right to leave Russia, you were fired from your job, and the Soviet government said, ‘Survive how you can.’ My mother lost her job at the conservatory. All her concert tours were cancelled and all her music was taken off the radio. The only way we survived was private students would come in secret, and packages sent from relatives. In fact, when I won first competition, right before leaving Russia, the people were afraid to let me perform at the awards concert, for fear of repercussion.”

In 1977, the family members who were already in the United States, were able to win the family’s right to immigrate by campaigning politicians.

He was raised in New York City and attended the Julliard School of Music. He has never been back to Russia, although his mother, who splits her time now between New York and England, has returned on concert tours.

Leonid has lived in the D.C. area for a decade. He is in his third year as director of the National Chamber Ensemble. He said his mother sometimes comes to see him perform.

“I think she’s proud. Most of the time,” he said. “When she’s in town, I’m very appreciative to play for her. She’s a great artist. Her input is very valuable.”
Sushansky said he is looking forward to starting the season with the ASO and Vivaldi.
“I try the most to make whatever I’m performing at the moment my favorite work. Whatever you’re performing, you have to be fully invested in it. I’ve never had a concert where said, ‘I don’t really like this.’ So, yes, Vivaldi is my favorite. This week. And next week,” he said with a laugh. “This is very exciting to do Vivaldi, because I’m starting the season with Vivaldi with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and ending the season with Vivaldi. In June, I’m performing the entire “Four Seasons” with the National Chamber Ensemble.”

“One of the things we do the most is talking to the audience during a performance. I try to make it interesting by telling stories, telling jokes – I try to make it a fun, interactive experience. Music is about sharing. When you share music, you’re also sharing yourself, it’s communicating.”



Sushansky said he likes to bridge the gap between the listener and the composer by giving out “the dirt” on the composers.

“Everybody has problems. It brings the composer to life. Most people, when they hear a composer’s name, think of some bust in a lobby, but I try to make the composer human. It helps to connect them to the music.”

But, Leonid said, Vivaldi is one of the few composers who almost doesn’t need any explanation – his music is so full of imagery and so accessible.

“ ‘The Four Seasons’ is probably the greatest or earliest examples of program music — music that tells a story. It’s amazing how accurately each piece portrays the poem without losing the musical quality,” Sushansky said. “In “Autumn,” in the first movement, the peasants are celebrating the harvest, and in the music it says they drink and they become drunk. I do not imagine a drunk person being able to play metronomically, so I make it a little free and unpredictable. Also, he brilliantly demonstrates when they fall asleep, the music demonstrates how they sleep and breathe. … In the first movement, they are dying from the heat, and then in the last movement, have a storm, and you hear the hail beating down the crop.”

Sushansky said while every concert has a great moment and memory for him, his most memorable moment onstage came when he was under the influence.

“It was last May, I had a performance two days after having surprise oral surgery. Doing a performance on Vicodin was interesting. For years I’ve always thought, ‘Hard work, hard work, practice hard,’ and Vicodin makes you think you can do anything. It went really well. I should have discovered Vicodin years ago. All these years, could have just taken a pill. And the concert was called ‘The Russians are Coming,’ so it was appropriate.”



Who: Alexandria Symphony Orchestra & Maestro Kim Allen Kluge
What: Vivaldi “Summer” and “Autumn” from The Four Seasons
Respighi Pines of Rome
Gershwin Piano Concerto in F
When: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
Where: Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center
NOVA Community College, Alexandria Campus
3001 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311
Price: $20-$80. Call 703-548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org for tickets

"Inspired by Nature" opens on Sept. 26

09-10 season begins at 8 p.m. Sept. 26

Featuring Carlos Rodriguez on piano and Leonid Sushansky on violin

Performing works by Vivaldi, Gershwin, and Respighi

The ASO heats up its 66^th season, with pieces that evoke warm afternoon thunderstorms and colorful leaves softly floating to the ground. The season is Inspired by Nature, and during the scorching Sept. 26 concert, violinist Leonid Sushansky will perform Vivaldi's bright and playful “Summer” and “Autumn,” selections from The Four Seasons. These two well-known pieces were part of the ground-breaking work by the composer whose melodies bring to mind flowing creeks, singing birds and buzzing mosquitoes.

Check out this amazing sand painting, by Ferenc Cako set to "Summer."

Guest Musicians

Leonid Sushansky is a virtuoso musician who is in his third season as the National Chamber Ensemble’s violinist and music director. The New York Times has called him “extraordinarily gifted,” and NPR’s Nina Totenberg has said, “He plays with so much heart, it makes you want to cry.”

ASO is happy to welcome back pianist Carlos Rodriguez. Rodriguez was one of the ASO’s most popular guests of the 07-08 season. Rodriguez is a member of the faculty at the Levine School of Music and guest artist and coach for the Domingo/Cafritz Young Artist Program with The Washington Opera.

Information

Check out part of the Gershwin, as performed in the film "Rhapsody in Blue." Be forewarned, it's a little disconcerting that the concert is interrupted by an announcement of the composer's death.

For more information, to contact the guest musicians, or for photos or review tickets, call Marketing and Box Office Manager Merrie Leininger at 703-548-0885 or e-mail her at alex@alexsym.org.

Go here to see the "Fantasia 2000" version of our third piece of the night: Respighi's "Pines of Rome"

Who: Alexandria Symphony Orchestra & Maestro Kim Allen Kluge

What: Vivaldi “Summer” and “Autumn” from The Four Seasons

Respighi Pines of Rome

Gershwin Piano Concerto in F

When: Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.

Where: Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall & Arts Center

NOVA Community College, Alexandria Campus

3001 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311

Price: $20-$80. Call 703-548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org for tickets

More ASO photos in local paper

The Alexandria Packett Gazette this week published photos from the July 11 City of Alexandria birthday celebration at Oronoco Park.

As you can see, if you weren't there this year, you're going to want to make sure you don't miss it in July 2010!

Below is special guest conductor Adron Krekeler with his wife Becky Mahood and ASO board member Donnie Wintermute. Krekeler won the honor to conduct the symphony at the annual SOLA Ball that was held in March.