43rd Season

An Update From the SSO:

April 28, 2020 — We regret to announce that our June 7th concert has been cancelled. Stay Well and Stay Connected #SSOtogether

April 13, 2020 — Our March and May 2020 concerts have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The SSO has continued to monitor the situation as well as the recommendations of the CDC and government officials. A letter will be going out to all of our patrons with your options regarding these cancelled performances this week.

We appreciate your patience as our volunteers continue working hard to respond to your needs in these uncertain times. Stay connected with us on Facebook by sharing your photos with #SSOtogether

Listed are the five concerts in the SSO concert series. Concerts #1, 2, 3, and 4 are available as a subscription series and are performed at Bel Air High School. Concert #5 is a free concert presented al fresco at the Humbert Memorial Band Shell.

For the SSO’s 43^rd Season, Germany at a Crossroads, the orchestra and its audience will explore reasons that the town of Leipzig, Germany, was such an important hometown for musicians, and an important destination for traveling musicians. From our season, the following composers visited or lived in Leipzig in the 18^th or 19^th century: Elgar, Mozart, Grieg, Dvorak, Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky!

Concert #1

Pre-concert lecture to begin at 6:45 pm.

Sheldon Bair – Conductor
Yonatan Dvir – Guest Conductor
Frances Borowsky – Cellist

Brahms – Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80
Wagner – Siegfried Idyll
Mendelssohn – Wedding March from “A Midsummer Night’ Dream”
Grieg – Symphonic Dance No. 3
Schumann – Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A Minor, with soloist Frances Borowsky

The SSO’s first concert of the season will explore the music of five composers who were influenced by the music culture in Leipzig, Germany. Although Vienna is often considered the capital of music in the 19th Century, Leipzig holds a special place int he music and influences in the middle of that century.

The concert will begin with Brahms’ fun-filled “Academic Festival Overture” which was written by Brahms as a token of his gratitude for being bestowed an honorary doctorate in philosohpy from the University of Breslau. The work ends with Brahms’ setting of the tune “Gaudeamus Igitur” (“So Let Us Rejoice”) which is known as both a serious university song and a beer-drinking song! The concert will continue with Wagner’s lovely “Siegfried Idyll” for small orchestra, written for the birth of Richard and Cosima’s son, Siegfried, and first performed Christmas morning, 1870. Mendelssohn’s well-known “Wedding March” from his incidental music to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will begin the concert’s second half. This is the work that is often heard as the recessional at weddings. The concert will continue with Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg’s lively Third Symphonic Dance. Grieg was among the composers who visited and worked in Leipzig.

The concert will conclude with Schumann’s wonderfully romantic Cello Concerto with soloist and Baltimore native, Frances Borowsky. A reviewer in Germany wrote the following about Frances: Oozing overall confidence and with sovereignty, she played with a superbly juicy tone, rich in resonance, with a dance-like swing and full of spirit – Heidelberg Rhein-Neckar Zeitung, Germany.

Isralei conductor, Yonatan Dvir, will conduct half of this season’s opening concert.

October 19, 2019 Program

Concert #2

Pre-concert lecture to begin at 6:45 pm.

Sheldon Bair – Conductor
Brian Folus – Guest Conductor

Bizet – March of the Kings (Farandole from ‘l’Arlesienne Suite No. 2’)
Grainger – Sussex Mummers Carol
arr. Folus – A Hanukkah Celebration
Arnold – The Holly and the Ivy (Fantasy on Christmas Carols)
J. S. Bach – Sinfonia from ‘Christmas Oratorio’
Tchaikovsky/Ellington – The Nutcracker Suite
Sheldon Bair – Christmas Sing Along

The Susquehanna Symphony’s popular concert will begin with French composer Georges Bizet’s “March of the Kings”, also known as “Farandole” from his “L’Arlesienne Suite”. It will continue with Percy Grainger’s moving “Sussex Mummers Carol” which is beloved by our audience and orchestra members alike. Next, Harford Youth Orchestra conductor Brian Folus will conduct his oft-requested “Hanukkah Celebration”, which is full of well-known and fun-filled Hanukkah tunes. Continuing the celebration to the end of the first half, the orchestra will perform Sir Malcolm Arnold’s “The Holly and the Ivy” (Fantasy on Christmas Carols), which has a rich and full film-music sound.

After intermission, a chamber orchestra will perform the lovely pastoral prelude to Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio; Cantata No. 2”. This will be followed by one of the most often requested works in the SSO’s repertoire: Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” for jazz orchestra by Duke Ellington and his amanuensis Billy Strayhorn, as further arranged by pops conductor and arranger Jeff Tyzik! The concert concludes with a Sing Along and the orchestra’s holiday shenanigans!

December 7, 2019 Program

Concert #3 – CANCELLED DUE TO COMMUNITY HEALTH CONCERNS

This concert is presented in partnership with the Cultural Center at the Opera House in Havre de Grace, Md. Soloist Kinga Augustyn will have a solo recital on Wednesday, March 11th at the Opera House at 8:00 p.m. Patrons that purchase a ticket for the recital will receive $5 off their ticket to her performance with the SSO on March 14th! Visit www.ohhdg.org!

Pre-concert lecture to begin at 6:45 pm.

Sheldon Bair – Conductor
Kinga Augustyn – violinist

Elgar – Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 in G Major
Jonathan Leshnoff – Four Dances
Dvorak – Slavonic Dance Op. 46, No. 8
Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D Major, with soloist, Kinga Augustyn

The SSO’s March concert will begin with Elgar’s famous “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4! This isn’t the popular graduation tune, but it is a famous march, one of five that Elgar wrote under the same title. This is followed by Towson composer, Jonathan Leshnoff’s evocative “Four Dances”. He is truly making a name for himself amongst orchestras and chamber musicians world-wide and is in demand as a composer! Next is a popular and brilliant Slavonic Dance by Antonin Dvorak.

For the concert’s second half, Maestro Bair has programmed the always popular Violin Concerto by Tchaikovsky! Our soloist will be Polish-American violinist and recording artist, Kinga Augustyn! Writing a review for Fanfare Magazine (March/April 2018), Jerry Dubins wrote of Augustyn’s recording of the Bruch Violin Concerto: I was also struck by how expressively she phrases without resorting to heavy vibrato or persistent portamento. In fact, her use of portamento is so infrequent and so poignantly timed on the few occasions when she does use it, that the effect is intensely intimate, as if she is imparting a personal secret. Most of what Augustyn accomplishes on the expressive, emotional level is done with the bow. The fingers find the notes, but it’s the bow that makes them speak and sing, and Augustyn’s bowing is exemplary. When other players cut short the held note values, especially on double-stops, to set up for the next double-stop or chord, or in anticipation of a string crossing or distant shift, Augustyn gives the note values their full due…

Concert #4 – CANCELLED DUE TO COMMUNITY HEALTH CONCERNS

Pre-concert lecture to begin at 6:45 pm.

Sheldon Bair – Conductor
Kimberly Sandifer Hirschmann – Guest Conductor

Beethoven – Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
Amanda Harberg – Prayer, Kimberly Sandifer Hirschmann conducting
Jennifer Hutt – Scenes from an Urban Ballad
Florence Price – Dances in the Canebreakes
Tracey Rush – Spirit of Freedom

Celebrating Women and the 100^th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage (plus Beethoven Anniversary Concert #1)

The year 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth in Bonn, Germany! Do we need another reason to celebrate this every-popular composer? We will begin the celebration with this concert and continue the anniversary remembrance next season!

This concert will start with Beethoven’s penultimate symphony, his Symphony No. 8 in F Major. This is one of his shortest and most succinct symphonies, and like his Symphony No. 1 that the SSO performed last season, has no real slow movement. It is a rollicking work unlike the numbered symphonies on either side!

The second half of the SSO’s May concert is a bow to American women who finally attained the right to vote 100 years ago! This portion of the concert will begin with “Prayer” by Amanda Harberg. Composer Amanda Harberg is no stranger to the SSO or Harford County. The Orchestra has performed two of her works, both entitled “Elegy” in the past. Her moving work “Prayer” will be conducted by Kimberly Sandifer Hirschmann, supervisor of fine arts for Frederick County Public Schools and a conductor at the Elizabethtown College Music Camp. Jennifer Hutt, a Harford County native, has lived in Paris for the past 15 years and makes her living composing for French film and playing violin, synths and singing in rock, pop and experimental electronic groups. She is composing a series of vignettes for the SSO. Next, the SSO will perform Florence Price’s wonderful “Dances in the Canebrakes” as orchestrated by William Grant Still. Florence Price (1887-1953) was the first African-American female composer to have a major work performed by a professional symphony orchestra. The concert will conclude with an SSO favorite which is often performed at the orchestra’s outdoor concerts: Tracey Rush’s “Spirit of Freedom.” This work is a patriotic march in the best sense, with fun percussion and screaming brass!

The Annual Side-by-Side concert will also feature talented orchestra students from Harford County Public Schools.