Tania Miller, conductor
Christie Reside, flute
Schubert Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D.485
Vivian Fung Storm Within (World Premiere VSO Commission)
An unprecedented performance by three incredible women in music, Sun and Storm features the world premiere of Storm Within, a VSO co-commission from composer Vivian Fung, featuring VSO principal flute Christie Reside, and conductor Tania Miller. Maestra Miller will also lead the VSO in a performance of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony. The commission of Storm Within was made possible by the generous support of the Hugh Davidson Fund at the Victoria Foundation.
Two contrasting works that explore the emotional light and dark are featured.
When a 19-year-old Schubert was composing his Symphony No. 5 he shared his inspiration: “As from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me…O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!”
Vivian Fung wrote her flute concerto at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and California (where she resides) was in full lockdown. “Although the concerto accordingly touches on an angrier—and perhaps a more emotive—side of my writing, it also has many moments of beauty and solace.” Composed with the talents of VSO’s Christie Reside in mind, it emerges from the clouds as a brilliant showpiece.
The World Premiere and commissioning of Vivian Fung’s Flute concerto “Storm Within” is dedicated to the memory of Hugh Davidson with thanks for the generous support of the Hugh Davidson Fund at the Victoria Foundation.
Tania Miller, conductor
Canadian Conductor Tania Miller has distinguished herself as a dynamic interpreter, musician and innovator. On the podium, Maestra Miller projects authority, dynamism and sheer love of the experience of making music. As one critic put it, she delivers "a calm intensity . . . expressive, colorful and full of life . . . her experience and charisma are audible". Others call her performances "technically immaculate, vivid and stirring".
Miller’s 20-21 season features debuts with the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Calgary Opera (production rescheduled for next season) and a return to the Chicago Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, London Symphonia, and future concerts with the Vermont Symphony and Elgin Symphony among others. Miller has appeared as a guest conductor in Canada, the United States and Europe with such orchestras as the Bern Symphony Orchestra, NFM Wroclåw Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra Métropolitain de Montreal, Vancouver Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, Madison Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New West Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and numerous others.
Maestra Miller was Music Director of Canada’s Victoria Symphony for 14 years, and gained national acclaim for her commitment to the orchestra and community during that time. She has distinguished herself as a visionary leader and innovator with a deep commitment to contemporary repertoire and composers. She has gained a national reputation as a highly effective advocate and communicator for the arts. Her writing has been featured in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Symphony Magazine, Toronto’s Globe and Mail, and Better Humans.
Maestra Miller will conduct Calgary Opera next season, and has previously conducted numerous productions as Artistic Director of Michigan Opera Works in Ann Arbor, Michigan and as guest conductor for Opera McGill in Montréal.
Ms. Miller was recipient of the 2017 Friends of Canadian Music award from the Canadian League of Composers and Canadian Music Centre for her acclaimed commitment to contemporary music in Canada. She was recognized for her commitment to community leadership with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Royal Roads University, and with an Honorary Fellowship Diploma from Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music.
Ms. Miller has a Doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler, and a Masters in conducting from the University of Michigan where she studied with H. Robert Reynolds. She worked as assistant conductor to Bruno Weil at the Carmel Bach Festival for four seasons, and as Assistant and Associate conductor of the Vancouver Symphony with Bramwell Tovey as Music Director from 2000-2004.
Hugh Kaylor Management, January 2021
Christie Reside, Principal Flute
Ron and Ardelle Cliff Chair
Christie Reside has been the Principal Flute of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Ms. Reside earned her Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University as a student of Timothy Hutchins, during which time she won the position of Second Flute with the VSO at the age of 19.
Ms. Reside is a passionate chamber musician, and has been invited to participate in several international chamber music festivals, including the Spoleto Music Festival in Italy, the Bellingham Music Festival, and the Mountain View International Festival of Song and Chamber Music. She has collaborated with artists such as Rudolf Jansen, Patrick Gallois, Jonathan Crow, and Yegor Dyachkov. She frequently performs as a soloist and has appeared as such with the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria, among others.
Christie Reside is a proud member of the award-winning Standing Wave Ensemble, based in Vancouver. Standing Wave is a new music group dedicated to commissioning and performing works by Canadian and international composers, and they’re excited to have been recently chosen to be Ensemble-in-Residence at the 2020 Gaudeamus Musiekweek in the Netherlands.
Ms. Reside frequently performs as guest Principal Flute with orchestras around the world. She has previously held the position of Principal Flute of the Seattle Symphony, and has also performed as Principal Flute with both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. In the fall of 2019 she joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for their tour of the Americas.
Currently, Ms. Reside is an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, and is also a faculty member at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1919, the Grammy and Juno-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the third largest orchestra in Canada, the largest arts organization in Western Canada, and one of the few orchestras in the world to have its own music school.
Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada.
The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Recent guest artists include Daniil Trifonov, Dawn Upshaw, James Ehnes, Adrianne Pieczonka, Gidon Kremer, Renée Fleming, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Bernadette Peters, Tan Dun, and more.
For the 2020-21 season the VSO has created the innovative streaming service TheConcertHall.ca, a virtual home for a virtual season, where more than forty performances will be released throughout the year.
Franz Schubert
(b. January 31, 1797 / Vienna, Austria)
(d. November 19, 1828 / Vienna, Austria)
Although he stood only 155 centimetres tall ( 5 foot 1 inch), Franz Schubert was a musical giant. By the time of his death at the tragically young age of 31, he had written over 1500 works, including 600 songs, three dozen piano pieces, chamber works by the dozen, 18 stage works, and 9 symphonies. Standing at the crossroads between the Classical and Romantic eras, during his lifetime his importance may have been overshadowed by Beethoven. But Robert Schumann said, "Schubert’s pencil was dipped in moonbeams and in the flame of the sun."
As much as he looked up to the then current musical god, Beethoven, Schubert also revered the music of past masters, most especially Mozart. In April of 1816, Schubert wrote his self-titled “Tragic” Symphony No. 4 in C minor, modelled on some of Beethoven’s storm-tossed works. But later that same year he attended a concert that featured music by both of his idols. He wrote in his diary, “As though from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me. So these fair impressions, which neither time nor circumstance can efface, linger in the soul and lighten our existence. They show us in the darkness of this life a light, clear and lovely, for which we may constantly hope. O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how endlessly many such beneficent intimations of a better life have you imprinted on our souls.” As much as the “Tragic” Symphony evokes Beethoven, Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 exudes a sun-filled splendour that owes its inspiration Mozart at his brightest.
Schubert called for a small ensemble for the Symphony in B Flat Major comprising one flute, two oboes and two bassoons, and just two horns (instead of four) plus strings - the same forces as Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. It is the only one of Schubert’s symphonies to exclude clarinets, trumpets and timpani. Its premiere came in a private performance at the home of Otto Hatwig, a violinist who served as concertmaster to a group of Schubert’s friends in a Sunday afternoon kind of read-through. The first professional performance came posthumously, 13 years after Schubert’s death. By the mid-1860s, musical interest in Schubert’s output was such that Sir George Grove ( founder the musical dictionary bearing his name) and a young Arthur Sullivan (yes, later of G&S fame) made the trek from England to Austria, where one of the treasures they unearthed was this long-neglected symphony. The Symphony No. 5 has been a favourite of audiences ever since.
Notes: Matthew Baird
Vivian Fung
(b. 1975 / Edmonton, Alberta)
JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung combines idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. She has recently completed a new flute concerto for the Vancouver Symphony, a piano trio for L’arc Trio, and a piece for the UK’s Tangram Collective. In July 2020, the CBC Virtual Orchestra gave the online world premiere of Fung’s Prayer, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He led The Philadelphia Orchestra in a virtual performance of Prayer in fall 2020. Fung mentors composers at the American Composers Forum, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, London Symphony Orchestra, and Cabrillo Festival. Born in Canada, she received her doctorate from Juilliard. Fung lives in California and is on the faculty of Santa Clara University.
Storm Within
My new Flute Concerto "Storm Within" is a work in one continuous movement written during the fall and winter of 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and California (where I currently reside) was in full lockdown. As I sat in my studio, powerful images and stories filtered in from the daily news—protests, violence, death, resistance, and conflict from the many events happening around the world. It was all a bit overwhelming, and I frequently found it difficult to process all the emotions that emerged from witnessing these events unfolding on the screen. In an effort to understand and come to terms with often unresolved sentiments swirling in my head, I decided to put them all into the concerto. I knew from the start that I did not want the flute concerto to focus on the many themes that have already been brilliantly portrayed by composers before me, subjects such as birdsong and pied piper tales. But although the concerto accordingly touches on an angrier—and perhaps a more emotive—side of my writing, it also has many moments of beauty and solace.
The work starts and ends with lyrical and placid moments for both flute and orchestra, bookending a journey that is at times percussive and harsh, at times playful, and at times soaring with expressive lines for both flute and orchestral instruments. The concerto displays a mighty and highly virtuosic flute part, with a cadenza right before the final moments of the piece. The flute solo is laced with fast runs, glissandi, large leaps, and rhythmically charged lines. At times, the flutist is asked to speak as well as play, giving the instrument an additional percussive dimension. The writing is meant to test the limits of the flute, and I could not have asked for a better performer than Christie Reside, the principal flutist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, who also commissioned this work.
Notes courtesy of Vivian Fung
Tania Miller, conductor
Christie Reside, flute
Schubert Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major, D.485
Vivian Fung Storm Within (World Premiere VSO Commission)
An unprecedented performance by three incredible women in music, Sun and Storm features the world premiere of Storm Within, a VSO co-commission from composer Vivian Fung, featuring VSO principal flute Christie Reside, and conductor Tania Miller. Maestra Miller will also lead the VSO in a performance of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony. The commission of Storm Within was made possible by the generous support of the Hugh Davidson Fund at the Victoria Foundation.
Two contrasting works that explore the emotional light and dark are featured.
When a 19-year-old Schubert was composing his Symphony No. 5 he shared his inspiration: “As from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me…O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, oh how endlessly many such comforting perceptions of a brighter and better life hast thou brought to our souls!”
Vivian Fung wrote her flute concerto at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and California (where she resides) was in full lockdown. “Although the concerto accordingly touches on an angrier—and perhaps a more emotive—side of my writing, it also has many moments of beauty and solace.” Composed with the talents of VSO’s Christie Reside in mind, it emerges from the clouds as a brilliant showpiece.
The World Premiere and commissioning of Vivian Fung’s Flute concerto “Storm Within” is dedicated to the memory of Hugh Davidson with thanks for the generous support of the Hugh Davidson Fund at the Victoria Foundation.
Tania Miller, conductor
Canadian Conductor Tania Miller has distinguished herself as a dynamic interpreter, musician and innovator. On the podium, Maestra Miller projects authority, dynamism and sheer love of the experience of making music. As one critic put it, she delivers "a calm intensity . . . expressive, colorful and full of life . . . her experience and charisma are audible". Others call her performances "technically immaculate, vivid and stirring".
Miller’s 20-21 season features debuts with the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, Calgary Opera (production rescheduled for next season) and a return to the Chicago Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, London Symphonia, and future concerts with the Vermont Symphony and Elgin Symphony among others. Miller has appeared as a guest conductor in Canada, the United States and Europe with such orchestras as the Bern Symphony Orchestra, NFM Wroclåw Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestra Métropolitain de Montreal, Vancouver Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, Madison Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New West Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic and numerous others.
Maestra Miller was Music Director of Canada’s Victoria Symphony for 14 years, and gained national acclaim for her commitment to the orchestra and community during that time. She has distinguished herself as a visionary leader and innovator with a deep commitment to contemporary repertoire and composers. She has gained a national reputation as a highly effective advocate and communicator for the arts. Her writing has been featured in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Symphony Magazine, Toronto’s Globe and Mail, and Better Humans.
Maestra Miller will conduct Calgary Opera next season, and has previously conducted numerous productions as Artistic Director of Michigan Opera Works in Ann Arbor, Michigan and as guest conductor for Opera McGill in Montréal.
Ms. Miller was recipient of the 2017 Friends of Canadian Music award from the Canadian League of Composers and Canadian Music Centre for her acclaimed commitment to contemporary music in Canada. She was recognized for her commitment to community leadership with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Royal Roads University, and with an Honorary Fellowship Diploma from Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music.
Ms. Miller has a Doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan where she studied with Kenneth Kiesler, and a Masters in conducting from the University of Michigan where she studied with H. Robert Reynolds. She worked as assistant conductor to Bruno Weil at the Carmel Bach Festival for four seasons, and as Assistant and Associate conductor of the Vancouver Symphony with Bramwell Tovey as Music Director from 2000-2004.
Hugh Kaylor Management, January 2021
Christie Reside, Principal Flute
Ron and Ardelle Cliff Chair
Christie Reside has been the Principal Flute of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 2004. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Ms. Reside earned her Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University as a student of Timothy Hutchins, during which time she won the position of Second Flute with the VSO at the age of 19.
Ms. Reside is a passionate chamber musician, and has been invited to participate in several international chamber music festivals, including the Spoleto Music Festival in Italy, the Bellingham Music Festival, and the Mountain View International Festival of Song and Chamber Music. She has collaborated with artists such as Rudolf Jansen, Patrick Gallois, Jonathan Crow, and Yegor Dyachkov. She frequently performs as a soloist and has appeared as such with the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Quebec City, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria, among others.
Christie Reside is a proud member of the award-winning Standing Wave Ensemble, based in Vancouver. Standing Wave is a new music group dedicated to commissioning and performing works by Canadian and international composers, and they’re excited to have been recently chosen to be Ensemble-in-Residence at the 2020 Gaudeamus Musiekweek in the Netherlands.
Ms. Reside frequently performs as guest Principal Flute with orchestras around the world. She has previously held the position of Principal Flute of the Seattle Symphony, and has also performed as Principal Flute with both the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. In the fall of 2019 she joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for their tour of the Americas.
Currently, Ms. Reside is an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia, and is also a faculty member at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Founded in 1919, the Grammy and Juno-award winning Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is the third largest orchestra in Canada, the largest arts organization in Western Canada, and one of the few orchestras in the world to have its own music school.
Led by Music Director Otto Tausk since 2018, the VSO performs more than 150 concerts each year, throughout Vancouver and the province of British Columbia, reaching over 270,000 people annually. On tour the VSO has performed in the United States, China, Korea and across Canada.
The orchestra presents passionate, high-quality performances of classical, popular and culturally diverse music, creating meaningful engagement with audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Recent guest artists include Daniil Trifonov, Dawn Upshaw, James Ehnes, Adrianne Pieczonka, Gidon Kremer, Renée Fleming, Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Bernadette Peters, Tan Dun, and more.
For the 2020-21 season the VSO has created the innovative streaming service TheConcertHall.ca, a virtual home for a virtual season, where more than forty performances will be released throughout the year.
Franz Schubert
(b. January 31, 1797 / Vienna, Austria)
(d. November 19, 1828 / Vienna, Austria)
Although he stood only 155 centimetres tall ( 5 foot 1 inch), Franz Schubert was a musical giant. By the time of his death at the tragically young age of 31, he had written over 1500 works, including 600 songs, three dozen piano pieces, chamber works by the dozen, 18 stage works, and 9 symphonies. Standing at the crossroads between the Classical and Romantic eras, during his lifetime his importance may have been overshadowed by Beethoven. But Robert Schumann said, "Schubert’s pencil was dipped in moonbeams and in the flame of the sun."
As much as he looked up to the then current musical god, Beethoven, Schubert also revered the music of past masters, most especially Mozart. In April of 1816, Schubert wrote his self-titled “Tragic” Symphony No. 4 in C minor, modelled on some of Beethoven’s storm-tossed works. But later that same year he attended a concert that featured music by both of his idols. He wrote in his diary, “As though from afar the magic notes of Mozart’s music still gently haunt me. So these fair impressions, which neither time nor circumstance can efface, linger in the soul and lighten our existence. They show us in the darkness of this life a light, clear and lovely, for which we may constantly hope. O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how endlessly many such beneficent intimations of a better life have you imprinted on our souls.” As much as the “Tragic” Symphony evokes Beethoven, Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 exudes a sun-filled splendour that owes its inspiration Mozart at his brightest.
Schubert called for a small ensemble for the Symphony in B Flat Major comprising one flute, two oboes and two bassoons, and just two horns (instead of four) plus strings - the same forces as Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. It is the only one of Schubert’s symphonies to exclude clarinets, trumpets and timpani. Its premiere came in a private performance at the home of Otto Hatwig, a violinist who served as concertmaster to a group of Schubert’s friends in a Sunday afternoon kind of read-through. The first professional performance came posthumously, 13 years after Schubert’s death. By the mid-1860s, musical interest in Schubert’s output was such that Sir George Grove ( founder the musical dictionary bearing his name) and a young Arthur Sullivan (yes, later of G&S fame) made the trek from England to Austria, where one of the treasures they unearthed was this long-neglected symphony. The Symphony No. 5 has been a favourite of audiences ever since.
Notes: Matthew Baird
Vivian Fung
(b. 1975 / Edmonton, Alberta)
JUNO Award-winning composer Vivian Fung combines idiosyncratic textures and styles into large-scale works, reflecting her multicultural background. She has recently completed a new flute concerto for the Vancouver Symphony, a piano trio for L’arc Trio, and a piece for the UK’s Tangram Collective. In July 2020, the CBC Virtual Orchestra gave the online world premiere of Fung’s Prayer, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He led The Philadelphia Orchestra in a virtual performance of Prayer in fall 2020. Fung mentors composers at the American Composers Forum, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players, London Symphony Orchestra, and Cabrillo Festival. Born in Canada, she received her doctorate from Juilliard. Fung lives in California and is on the faculty of Santa Clara University.
Storm Within
My new Flute Concerto "Storm Within" is a work in one continuous movement written during the fall and winter of 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and California (where I currently reside) was in full lockdown. As I sat in my studio, powerful images and stories filtered in from the daily news—protests, violence, death, resistance, and conflict from the many events happening around the world. It was all a bit overwhelming, and I frequently found it difficult to process all the emotions that emerged from witnessing these events unfolding on the screen. In an effort to understand and come to terms with often unresolved sentiments swirling in my head, I decided to put them all into the concerto. I knew from the start that I did not want the flute concerto to focus on the many themes that have already been brilliantly portrayed by composers before me, subjects such as birdsong and pied piper tales. But although the concerto accordingly touches on an angrier—and perhaps a more emotive—side of my writing, it also has many moments of beauty and solace.
The work starts and ends with lyrical and placid moments for both flute and orchestra, bookending a journey that is at times percussive and harsh, at times playful, and at times soaring with expressive lines for both flute and orchestral instruments. The concerto displays a mighty and highly virtuosic flute part, with a cadenza right before the final moments of the piece. The flute solo is laced with fast runs, glissandi, large leaps, and rhythmically charged lines. At times, the flutist is asked to speak as well as play, giving the instrument an additional percussive dimension. The writing is meant to test the limits of the flute, and I could not have asked for a better performer than Christie Reside, the principal flutist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, who also commissioned this work.
Notes courtesy of Vivian Fung
