Main Line Symphony Orchestra - For the Love and Wonder of Nature

Featuring Gloria de Pasquale, Cello and Richard Woodhams, Oboe ; formerly with Philadelphia Orchestra, and introducing 2 World Premieres Roses From the South – Johann Strauss II Will Einhorn, Conductor Silent Woods – Antonín Dvořák Gloria de Pasquale, Cello Soloist Oboe Concerto – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Richard Woodhams, Oboe soloist Primordial Sea (World Premiere) Joe Lorini Instead I Borrowed the Ripples (World Premiere) Sarina Khalili Appalachian Spring – Aaron Copland Main Line Symphony Orchestra Now in its 81st season, the Main Line Symphony Orchestra (MLSO) is a community ensemble that draws dedicated musicians of all ages who seek the challenge of performing both standard orchestral literature and new compositions. Each year, members have the pleasure of accompanying professional soloists under the guidance of Music Director Don Liuzzi. See mlso.org for more details. Gloria dePasquale, Cello Soloist Gloria dePasquale, Cellist for The Philadelphia Orchestra (1977-2022) was hired by Eugene Ormandy and served four and a half decades under ensuing artistic leadership, including Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, Charles Dutoit, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The public-school music system in Evansville, Indiana, provided Mrs. dePasquale’s early introduction to the cello and classical music, with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra providing her entry into the professional world when she won her first orchestral position with the EPO at age 15. Attending New England Conservator of Music on a full scholarship, Mrs. DePasquale earned her BM and MM degrees (both with honors distinction) in cello performance in 1971 and 1973, as a cello student of Stephen Geber. While in Boston, Mrs. dePasquale also performed as a substitute cellist for the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops. From 1974-77, Mrs. dePasquale was Associate Principal Cellist of the Buffalo Philharmonic, under the music directorship of Michael Tilson Thomas. After joining The Philadelphia Orchestra cello section in 1977, Ms. dePasquale became a tireless advocate for music education and community engagement. Along with The Philadelphia Orchestra cello section, she helped to design, spearhead, and popularize The Philadelphia Orchestra PlayINs, convening hundreds of student, amateur, and professional musicians on the stage of Verizon Hall for casual performances with Philadelphia Orchestra musicians. Mrs. dePasquale and her late husband, Philadelphia Orchestra Co-Concertmaster, William dePasquale, were instrumental in forging the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Music Institute (PYOMI)-Philadelphia Orchestra Side by Side events. The dePasquales also initiated the relationship between Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians (many who are PYOMI alums) and PYOMI for the sectional masterclasses for PYO and PYAO. In 2006, at the invitation of PYOMI President and CEO, Louis Scaglione, Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale founded Prysm Strings, which has grown over 16 seasons to three ensembles offering a unique model of teaching string playing techniques and music making for string students K-12. Mrs. dePasquale is the Director of Prysm Strings and Conductor of the senior ensemble, Prysm. In August of 2022, Ms. dePasquale designed and launched PYOMI Summer Strings Program, a 2 week day camp for string students across all the PYOMI ensembles. In 2013, Mrs. dePasquale designed a curriculum of classes for PYOMI, College and Conservatory Audition Preparation (CCAP), offered to all students of PYOMI, and presented each year as a series of six seminars, including adjudicated mock auditions, with a panel of professional musicians and educators. As a soloist, Mrs. dePasquale has appeared with PYO in Verizon Hall performing Haydn’s C Major ‘Cello Concerto and Elgar’s ‘Cello Concerto. Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale appeared as soloists, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with many community and regional orchestras in the Philadelphia area, as well as a performance in Verizon Hall with PYO. The dePasquales also appeared with PYO in Verizon Hall performing Saint-Saëns’ La Muse et le Poète. And Mrs. dePasquale appeared as soloist in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante with PYO, along with violinist, Francesca dePasquale; oboist, Peter Smith; and bassoonist, Angela Anderson Smith. For a decade, Mrs. dePasquale was cellist in the New Philadelphia Quartet, and for more than two decades, the cellist in the dePasquale Quartet. In residence for more than two decades at Villanova University, the dePasquale Quartet featured guest collaborations with well-known artists including, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Andre Watts, Yefim Bronfam, Christoph Eschenbach, and Wolfgang Sawallisch. Mr. and Mrs. dePasquale also performed as the dePasquale Trio, alongside daughter, Francesca-PYO Concertmaster Alum-Professor of violin Oberlin Conservatory, faculty at Juilliard Pre-College, appearing in such venues as the Perleman Theater, The Reading Musical Society, and Villanova University. Mrs. dePasquale’s past board service includes several terms on The Philadelphia Orchestra Board of Directors, and two decades of service as a board member for the League of American Orchestras. Currently Mrs. dePasquale serves on the President’s Council for New England Conservatory of Music. Mrs. dePasquale continues to maintain a large private cello studio. Her students consistently gain admission to the nation’s most highly regarded academic institutions and music conservatories. Richard Woodhams, Oboe Soloist Richard Woodhams, who retired from The Philadelphia Orchestra in September 2018, became principal oboe of the Orchestra in 1977. He succeeded his teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music, John de Lancie. Mr. Woodhams’s tenure included many solo appearances in Philadelphia, as well as in Chicago, New York, Boston and other cities throughout the United States and Asia in collaboration with its four previous music directors. He recorded the Strauss Oboe Concerto with Wolfgang Sawallisch and gave first performances with the Orchestra of solo works by J.S. Bach, Bellini, Haydn, George Rochberg, Christopher Rouse, Joan Tower, and Vaughan Williams. Additionally he has premiered chamber works locally by William Bolcom, Chuck Holdeman, Thea Musgrave, Bernard Rands, Ned Rorem, Richard Wernick, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Mr. Woodhams has also performed solo works in his career with such notable musicians as violinists Alexander Schneider and Itzhak Perlman, pianists Christoph Eschenbach and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, as well as the Guarneri, Orion, and Dover string Quartets. He also recorded Tower’s Island Prelude with Tokyo String Quartet. Mr. Woodhams has taught at the Curtis Institute since 1985 and has given master classes at many prominent schools worldwide, including London’s Royal College of Music, the Juilliard School, Rice University, and the Shanghai Concervatory. His former students occupy prominent playing and teaching positions in the United States and abroad. He has participated in the Marlboro, La Jolla, and Aspen music festivals, among others. Mr. Woodhams began his oboe studies with Raymond Dusté in his native Palo Alto, California, and his orchestral career in 1969 with the St. Louis Symphony under Walter Susskind. In 2018 he received the annual award of the Philadelphia Musical Society of Philadelphia and this summer will be elected an honorary member of the International Double Reed Society. Don Liuzzi, Music Director Don Liuzzi, starting his 12th season as MLSO Music Director, was born and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and completed high school in Philadelphia at the Franklin Learning Center. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan and his Master of Music degree from Temple University. His primary teachers were Alan Abel, Charles Owen, and John Soroka. Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1989, Mr. Liuzzi was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony percussion section from 1982 to 1989.