issue five - Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

Joshua Weilerstein conductor
In July 2011, shortly after completing his
graduate studies in conducting and violin at
the New England Conservatory, the New York
Philharmonic appointed Joshua Weilerstein
as one of its two assistant conductors. Two
years earlier, Mr Weilerstein, then twenty-one
years old, was named the unanimous winner
of the 2009 Malko Competition for Young
Conductors in Copenhagen. His first-prize
honors included a series of engagements
with major Scandinavian orchestras, the first
of which was the Gothenburg Symphony
Orchestra in June 2009, marking Joshua’s
professional conducting debut.
Since then, he has conducted the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic, the Danish National
Symphony, the Norrköping Symphony, the
Malmö Symphony and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, among others. In 12-13,
Joshua has re-engagements with the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony,
the Copenhagen Philharmonic and the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic and begins his
second year as Assistant Conductor of the
New York Philharmonic.
Ian Parker piano
Ian Parker captivates audiences wherever he
goes. An enthusiastic recitalist, Ian Parker has
performed across the United States, Western
Europe, Israel, and throughout Canada on
tours with Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses
Musicales du Canada.
First Prize winner at the 2001 CBC National
Radio Competition, Ian Parker has also
won the Grand Prize at the Canadian
National Music Festival, the Corpus Christie
International Competition and the Montréal
Symphony Orchestra Competition. At The
Juilliard School, he received the 2002
William Petschek Piano Debut Award and, on
two occasions, was the winner of the Gina
Bachauer Piano Scholarship Competition.
Born in Vancouver to a family of pianists,
Ian Parker began his piano studies at
age three with his father, Edward Parker.
He holds both the Bachelor and Master of
Music degrees from The Juilliard School,
where he was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky.
While at Juilliard, the Canada Council for the
Arts awarded him the Sylva Gelber Career
Grant, which is given annually to the “most
talented Canadian artist.”
Gioacchino Rossini
b. Pesaro, Italy / February 29, 1792
d. Passy, France / November, 13 1868
William Tell: Overture
Rossini was one of opera’s most beloved
composers, and Italy’s operatic champion.
William Tell was the last of Rossini’s 39
operas, and is based on the play Wilhelm Tell,
about the 13th century Swiss patriot who led
his country against the Austrians.
The Overture has become part the
Western world’s collective consciousness,
its popularity far outstripping that of the
opera itself, and has been heard countless
times in many forms; most famously in
Disney’s Fantasia and as the theme for
The Lone Ranger.
"...and the Finale, which
breaks stridently through
the calm, with a blistering
depiction of Tell’s ride to victory
and freedom."
The Overture is constructed in a very
different way from so many other operatic
overtures, with four distinct sections much
like a symphony. The four sections are played
together with no breaks between, but the
Overture still indeed feels symphonic in
scope. The four sections are titled (perhaps by
Rossini, perhaps later), as follows: At Dawn,
pleasantly describing sunrise in the Swiss
countryside; The Storm, a vivid description of
a raging storm; The Calm, where the English
horn represents a Swiss cowherd playing a
traditional Ranz des vaches melody in a lovely
pastoral scene; and the Finale, which breaks
stridently through the calm, with a blistering
depiction of Tell’s ride to victory and freedom.
32 allegro