Longy Chamber Orchestra
Anne Manson, Guest Conductor
Sanders Theatre, Harvard University
March 9, 2008

The Longy Chamber Orchestra, which is composed of conservatory students from around the world, had the opportunity to be conducted by Anne Manson, whose historic milestones include being the first woman to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, where she led the Vienna Philharmonic. In addition, she is one of only three women to have been appointed music director of a leading American symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, which she directed from 1999 to 2003. As a conductor, Manson is most distinguished for her dynamic podium presence, stylistic versatility and ability to draw audiences into the inner world of the composer. At the Longy concert held at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, many members of the audience remembered Ms. Manson from her youth in Cambridge, when she was a Preparatory student at Longy, studying viola and piano. The concert also featured two other musicians who are part of the Longy family—sopranos Michelle Trainor, a 2006 alumna, and Karyl Ryczek, who chairs the voice department.

(a) Anne Manson leds the Longy Chamber Orchestra in her signature crisp and fluid podium manner, with a wonderfully precise beat that opens on a dime into phrases of lyrical breadth. (b) Soprano Karyl Ryczek sang Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915. (c) Michelle Trainor, who received her master of music with distinction in opera performance from Longy in 2006, performed Earl Kim’s Illuminations for Soprano, Harp and Strings. (d) The Longy Chamber Orchestra captivated the audience with Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. (e) Joining Anne Manson at the concert were (from left) Martha Kim, whose late husband, Earl Kim, a Longy faculty member, composed the Illuminations piece at the end of his life; soprano and faculty member Karyl Ryczek; Robert Shay, dean of Longy’s conservatory; Karen Zorn, president of Longy; and Longy alumnae Michelle Trainor.

Photographs by Steve Gilbert

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