Category: BPO in the News

As the Principal Pops Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic, John Morris Russell has big shoes to fill.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Doc Severinsen embodied the Pops spirit at the Buffalo Philharmonic, with crowd-pleasing, dynamic programs. Night owls who watched him during the week on “The Tonight Show” flocked to the hall for their own brush with celebrity. In the early 2000s, the late, great composer Marvin Hamlisch led the series with finesse, involving lots of community talent and well-known artists.

Russell is the perfect person to continue the Pops tradition at the BPO. His boundless charisma, energy and enthusiasm – one staff person described him as “human coffee” – allow him to forge a connection with every audience member, whether they’re seated in the front row or the back of the balcony. He also brings a lot of experience to the role: not only is he the leader of the highly-respected Cincinnati Pops and the burgeoning Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, he spent 11 seasons leading the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Canada.

“The whole border community is such a vibrant area. There’s so much going on,” he said, referencing the Medical Campus expansion, the influx of renewable energy corporations, and the revitalization taking place downtown. “I spent so much time on the other side of the river. I’m really anxious to explore everything down here. It’s an exciting time to be in Buffalo.”

Yet, it was a job he never sought.

In 2014, he guest-conducted “Glee” star Matthew Morrison’s performance with the BPO at the request of his longtime friend, then-BPO General Manager David Crane. At the time, the BPO was engaged in a search for a Principal Pops Conductor, their first since Hamlisch’s departure in 2007. He was asked if he’d consider the role, he says, and was ultimately selected from among the other candidates. He added the role of Principal Pops Conductor to his duties with the Cincinnati Pops and with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra.

Russell led three BPO concerts last season: Holiday Pops, Great Ladies of Swing with Dee Daniels, and A Tribute to John Denver. This season, he will lead five concerts, beginning with The Music of John Williams. He is based in Cincinnati, and spends several days prior to each concert in Buffalo rehearsing with the BPO.

“We have got such a fantastic orchestra, really great players. We wanted to kick things off by having a showpiece that features the virtuosity of the orchestra. There’s no better way to do that than with the music of John Williams.” The Sept. 24 concert includes music from “Star Wars,” “Jaws,” “Superman,” and “Schindler’s List,” as well as Williams’ Olympic theme that resonated through homes this summer during the Rio Games.

“It’s going to be a resplendent performance of great orchestral music. This is music you kind of take for granted as you’re eating popcorn and watching the latest Star Wars installment, but when you listen to the music by itself, it stands on its own and is some of the most splendid orchestral writing that’s ever been created.”

On October 22, Russell will introduce a new act to Western New York: The New York Voices. Ask him about this group, and his characteristic enthusiasm takes over.

“They are EXTRAORDINARY. Oh. My. God. They’re so jazzy and hip and incredibly talented,” he said. The Ithaca College-trained vocal quartet has a sound similar to that of Manhattan Transfer, and they will perform a show called “Sweet Sounds of the 70s.” Russell included an orchestral medley of music by the legendary Wrecking Crew, the house band for many of Phil Spector’s artists, because Wrecking Crew member Tommy Tedesco is a native of Buffalo.

“It’s [Buffalo’s] cultural diversity that breeds great music makers in all varieties,” he said, in a comment hinting at future seasons, “We want to further explore some of the great music makers that have called Buffalo their home.”

Last season, Russell made his debut as Principal Pops Conductor with Holiday Pops, one of the orchestra’s biggest concerts of the season. It is also a concert very close to his heart.

“I’m a Christmas music nut. I’ve got literally a thousand LPs that I’ve been collecting since I was a kid,” he said. He remembers his father coming home with compilations put out by Firestone and Goodyear after getting the snow tires put on the family car. “It would always just be this panoply of music. I like to have that kind of wild diversity to holiday programs. We’re celebrating peace, love and joy and I’d like to make sure every single piece of music on the program exudes it.”

Russell is still in the process of finalizing plans for Holiday Pops, but has planned to showcase the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, who he calls “fantastic,” ever since the first rehearsal for last season’s concert. He also plans to seek out and highlight additional Buffalo talent on this concert, which has the potential attendance of nearly 10,000 people among the four performances on Dec. 16, 17 and 18.

After the holiday break, Russell will return to lead Broadway star Lisa Vroman in “A Valentine Romance” on Feb. 10 and 11. Vroman has sung the role of Christine in “Phantom in the Opera” more than anyone else, and has numerous other Broadway, orchestral and opera credits.

“It’s a real delight to be able to bring her to Buffalo. She kind of embodies what I think of as the ‘pops spirit,’” Russell said. “She’s an exceptional singer who can sing everything from opera to show tunes to jazz. We like to have that same ethos to the pops.” He quoted Duke Ellington as saying “If it sounds good, it is good.”

Russell is also eager to share the talents of The Midtown Men with Buffalo, on March 31 and April 1. Comprised of original cast members from the hit Broadway show “Jersey Boys,” the group performs hits from 1960s and 1970s.

“Midtown Men preformed with the Cincinnati Pops a few years ago, and they were outstanding. It’s an incredibly entertaining show. I immediately thought this would be perfect for Buffalo,” Russell said.

Russell plans to spend his off-time exploring the city and getting to know it better. He is particularly interested in spending time on Lake Erie, something he didn’t do last season because his concerts were in December, January and February. He also plans to visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, to further explore the rich architectural heritage in Buffalo, to experience more of Buffalo’s dining scene, and just generally get to know a region in which he already feels at home.

“[After my guest-conducting appearance,] I looked around town and said, ‘these are my people,’” he recalled. “It was a wonderful serendipitous moment. It’s been a wonderful relationship. All the concerts we did last year were so much fun.”

Tickets to all Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra concerts are now on sale. Discounts are available to groups of eight or more. Individuals can save on multiple concerts by subscribing. For more information, visit bpo.org or call (716) 885-5000.

Efforts by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra to meet its $25 million Crescendo Campaign goal has received a major boost from one of its biggest corporate supporters.

M&T Bank has pledged $500,000 to the campaign as the BPO nears its $25 million goal. The Crescendo Campaign was announced last year and more than $23 million has been raised in pledges.

M&T has pledged its donation through its M&T Charitable Foundation.

“Our orchestra needs the support of business leaders in our community to ensure it has a strong future for decades to come,” said Robert Wilmers, M&T Bank chairman and CEO.

Wilmers said he hopes other corporations and individuals follow suit.

Since 1992, M&T Bank and its executives have contributed nearly $5 million to the BPO.

“It is my hope that this gift will inspire others, especially our corporate leaders, to give to the BPO, an institution that enriches the fabric of our community,” said Louis Ciminelli, BPO Board of Trustees chairman.

The Crescendo Campaign is the latest targeted effort by the orchestra’s leadership to have its endowment fund surpass the $50 million mark. Typically orchestras need endowments that are five times its annual operating budget.

This year, the BPO has an $11 million operating budget.

Before the Crescendo Campaign began, the BPO’s endowment fund was approximately $34 million.

Officials said the fund will help finance collaborative efforts with other local cultural organizations and expand its “Music for Youth” concert series and “Next Generation” education programs.

Richard Strauss completed his final tone poem, Ein Alpensinfonie, Op. 64 “An Alpine Symphony”, in 1915. Somewhat surprisingly, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance of “An Alpine Symphony”, under the baton of its music director JoAnn Falletta, will be an orchestra premiere on its season finale concerts on Saturday June 4 at 8pm and Sunday June 5 at 2:30pm.

The performance will be accompanied by projected images of the Alps as photographed and assembled into what he calls a Symphony in Images, by the German photographer and cellist Tobias Melle. The goal of Melle is to make the audible visible, as he has noted: “The fusion of my photography with the music of great symphonic compositions results in a unique audio-visual work of art. With the aid of digital projectors, Symphony in Images enables the audience simultaneously to hear with its eyes and see with its ears. The images are synchronized live: this means that they fit perfectly and naturally with the playing of the musicians”. Melle has enjoyed great popular success with his photographic interpretations of symphonies by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak during live performances in both Europe and America.

Richard Strauss earned his reputation as a composer, first in Europe and then internationally, through his wonderfully original tone poems for orchestra. Beginning with “Don Juan” in 1888, and continuing through an increasingly ambitious and successful series that included “Death and Transfiguration”, “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks”, “Also sprach Zarathustra, “Don Quixote Ein Heldenleben” and “Symphonia Domestica”, Strauss’ popular tone poems are among the most frequently programmed orchestral works, with one notable exception. Although Strauss designates his Opus 64 as a “symphony”, the “Alpine Symphony” is not composed in the traditional four-movement symphonic form, but it is rather a tone poem, consisting of twenty-two continuous sections of music, written for a vastly augmented orchestra, one of the reasons, no doubt, that the work is one of the very least performed of his tone poems.

Strauss had started sketching drafts of “An Alpine Symphony” in 1899, but he put them aside, concentrating instead on his skyrocketing career as an opera composer. Upon learning in 1911 of the death of his good friend Gustav Mahler, Strauss noted in his journal: “The death of this aspiring, idealistic, energetic artist is a grave loss” and he resumed work on “An Alpine Symphony” which he intended to be a two-part work titled “Der Antichrist: Eine Alpensinfonie”, with the new part named after an essay by Nietzsche written in 1888.  Strauss eventually abandoned the idea of a second part, and called his single-movement work, which he finished early in 1915, simply An Alpine Symphony.

BPO music director JoAnn Falletta has previously performed an Alpine Symphony, leading her other orchestra, the Virginia Symphony, at the Virginia Festival of the Arts in 2013. About that performance Falletta noted that “In Strauss’ inspired and monumental masterpiece, ‘An Alpine Symphony’, he calls upon all of his supreme powers of orchestral wizardry to create his largest work — an evocative description of a mountain and the beauty and danger encountered in scaling its heights. Strauss had a very memorable mountain-climbing experience as a boy, and he recreates that adventure in music of gigantic proportions – requiring an orchestra of over 115 people and including such exotic instruments as a thunder sheet, cowbells and a wind machine. The music is overwhelming in its scope and gorgeous in its romantic extravagance. And if such sonic beauty weren’t enough, we will have corresponding images projected above the orchestra. Not only will you hear the magnificence and terror of an Alpine climb, you will be dazzled by the striking photo-choreography of sunrise, waterfalls, glaciers, alpine meadows thunderstorms and many more brilliant images. This is truly an once-in-a-lifetime experience to ‘live the music of this great work with eyes and ears”.

Born in Lackawanna in 1972, composer Ron Gardner completed his studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA in 1996. He composed his “Sanctuary of the Soul” as a gift for JoAnn Falletta and the BPO. About his new work, the composer says “Sanctuary of the Soul celebrates Eliel Saarinen’s inspired architectural vision for Kleinhans Music Hall while illuminating the shared listening experience of concert goers. As a point of reference, an aerial view of the concert hall resembles a cello, which serves as the featured solo instrument in the music; and the cello’s melody seeks to emulate Saarinen’s unique use of curvilinear interiors and exteriors in the structure. Strings open the piece, representing the excitement and pleasure of the patrons upon arrival in the lobby. A crescendo follows which portrays the first sight of the grand canopy upon entering the concert hall. A contemplative cello solo implies a hush of anticipation before the orchestral sound fills the stage, as the music builds and expands with winds and brass; their melodies convey a mutual delight, finishing with a triumphant, unified homage to the architect, conductor, musicians and patrons”.

It would be safe to say that this program is infused with the world of nature, as it also includes the BPO premiere of a third piece, “In the Tatra Mountains, Op.26, Symphonic Poem” by Czech composer Vítezslav Novak (1870-1949). Composed in 1902, the lushly written work was inspired by Novak’s journeys in the magnificent Tatra mountain range between the border of Czechoslovakia and Poland.