Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle, Music Director

Overview

A young American conductor and a 75-year-old orchestra from Ukraine may seem an unlikely combination, but it was love at first sight says Hobart Earle of his debut with the Odessa Philharmonic in 1991.  In recognition of his work with the orchestra during his 19-year tenure, Earle was awarded the title "Distinguished Artist of Ukraine", the first and only foreigner in the history of Ukraine to be so honored.

Cellist William De Rosa has established himself as one of the leading cellists of his generation.  Melding a distinctive artistry, profound musicianship, and an exquisite tone, he has been described as one of the most brilliant cello talents in the world.

Tickets:  $$46, $43, students with ID $20  

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Related Sites

• Odessa Philharmonic web site
• Odessa Phil performing The Blue Danube Waltz

Program

PROGRAM

Schubert    Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) in b-minor

Saint Saens     Cello Concerto No. 1 in a-minor, Op. 33

Beethoven     Symphony No. 7 in A-Major, Op. 92

About the Artists

Odessa, one of the most beautiful cities on the Black Sea Coast, can look back upon a remarkable cultural history. The home of a large port and a bustling city of 1.3 million people today, Odessa is multinational to the core, with one of the broadest ethnic make-ups in the entire region. From Georgian to Greek, from Armenian to Jewish, from Russian to Bulgarian, these communities and many more form an integral part of this cosmopolitan city whose heritage spreads as far west as France and Italy. At the end of the nineteenth century, Odessa was a major cultural center, visited by many outstanding musical personalities. Violin pedagogue Piotr Stoliarsky and his pupils David Oistrakh and Nathan Milstein are among Odessa’s best known musical “children”. The pianists Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter also grew up in Odessa, as did Shura Cherkassky, who was born on Pushkin Street, one of the city’s most colorful avenues.

From this proud musical tradition comes the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, the vast majority of whom are graduates of the Odessa Conservatory and almost half of whom entered the Conservatory from the Stoliarsky School. The orchestra was founded in 1937 and throughout the Soviet era performed regularly at home under such conductors as Nathan Rachlin, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Sanderling, Arvid Jansons and also Mariss Jansons. During the Soviet years, Odessa, a major center before the revolution, was relegated to the ranks of “regional” city. Unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Odessa the orchestra was not allowed to travel outside the borders of the USSR.

With the independence of Ukraine, the orchestra’s status rose; in January of 1993 the Government of Ukraine formally awarded the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra federal status. The OPO is the only performing arts organization in Ukraine outside of Kiev to attain this distinction.  

The new status was acknowledgment of the orchestra’s dynamic progress during the preceding two years under new music director Hobart Earle. The orchestra has since become the first from Ukraine to cross both the Atlantic Ocean and the Equator. In the years since 1992 the orchestra and Hobart Earle have made a total of fifteen trips abroad to twelve different countries, performing in such major concert halls as the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Barbican Hall in London, the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Gr eat Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Davies Hall in San Francisco and the General Assembly of the United Nations. 

In addition to their regular concerts at home in Odessa, during the 1990s the orchestra and Hobart Earle have traveled to the Ukrainian cities of Lviv, Ivano Frankivsk, Ternopil, Chernivtsy, Uzhhorod, Vinnitsya, Zhitomir, Khmelnitsky, Kirovograd, Poltava and Mikolayiv, in addition to making a total of twelve different trips to perform in Kyiv (Kiev). In 1994 the OPO became the first symphony orchestra from a former republic to perform the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society since the breakup of the USSR. Today, the local audience in Odessa takes pride in the orchestra’s achievements and fill the concert hall regularly.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Hobart Earle is currently in his fifteenth season as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time Mr. Earle has elevated the orchestra to a position of international prominence, unprecedented in the history of the organization. In point of fact, the Odessa Philharmonic is the first performing arts organization in the entire country to have had its funding status raised by the government of Ukraine from regional to federal to national, since the independence of Ukraine in 1991.

Hobart Earle has conducted hundreds of concerts with the Odessa Philharmonic to wide acclaim -- in the major concert halls of the United States, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia and throughout Ukraine. Highlights of Maestro Earle’s career include performances in the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie (Cologne), the Beethovenhalle (Bonn), the Barbican Hall (London), the National Auditorium (Madrid), the Liszt Academy (Budapest) the Great Halls of the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, and in the United States he has appeared in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Davies Hall in San Francisco and the General Assembly of the United Nations. 

Hobart Earle’s festival credits include appearances at such music festivals as the Bregenz Spring Festival (Austria), the Festival of Perth (Australia), the Lugano Spring Festival (Switzerland), the Chichester Festivities (England), the Nuits Musicales du Suquet in Cannes (France), the Budapest Spring Festival, (Hungary), the Varna Summer Festival (Bulgaria) and the Cultural Capital of Europe 1997 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In Europe, he has led such orchestras as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Tonkuenstler Orchestra, the Noord-Nederlands Orkest in Holland, the Orchestra della Toscana in Italy, and in the U. S., the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra. 

In recognition of his work with the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, Hobart Earle was awarded the title “Distinguished Artist of Ukraine”, the first and only foreigner in the history of Ukraine so honored. Under his dynamic leadership, the Orchestra has become a great source of pride at home with the concert hall regularly sold out. One of the most popular figures in the city of Odessa, Maestro Earle was presented with the annual "Friend of Ukraine" award by the Washington Group (an association of Ukrainian/American professionals) on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the independence of Ukraine in 1996. He was the first person in the arts to receive the award. In 2003, in conjunction with leading newspapers in Ukraine, the Russian Cosmonaut Association named a star in the ‘Perseus’ constellation as ‘Hobart Earle’.

 During his tenure in Odessa, Hobart Earle has also led numerous performances of repertoire never before heard there. In particular, he is the first conductor to perform such major works in Odessa as: Gustav Mahler’s 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th symphonies, Anton Bruckner’s 8th symphony, Richard Strauss’s "Four Last Songs", Elgar’s ’Enigma’ Variations, Alban Berg’s "3 Excerpts from Wozzeck", Gustav Holst’s "The Planets", Aaron Copland’s "El Salon Mexico" and "Lincoln Portrait" and Leonard Bernstein’s ’Jeremiah’ symphony.

He was a student of Ferdinand Leitner in Salzburg and Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood. Hobart Earle studied conducting at the Academy of Music in Vienna; received a performer’s diploma in clarinet from Trinity College of Music, London; and is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University

A performer of international stature,cellist William DeRosa regularly collaborates with such renowned conductors as Raymond Leppard, Myung-Whun Chung, James Judd, JoAnn Falletta, Yan-Pascal Tortelier with numerous orchestras including the Los Angeles and Florida Philharmonics, the Symphony Orchestras of Milwaukee, Utah, and San Francisco and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. As a recitalist, DeRosa has performed in major music centers in the United States including Washington, DC's Kennedy Center, the Music Center in Los Angeles, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall and Jones hall in Houston. DeRosa is also an active chamber musician, performing with many of the world's leading ensembles including the Artis, Emerson and Cleveland quartets. His festival appearances have taken him to Aspen, Marlboro and Seattle, as well as Europe and at sea. DeRosa has regularly performed on the National Public Radio, and has been the subject of documentaries and television specials broadcast on PBS and CBS.

Highlights of recent seasons include engagements in Chicago, Los Angeles, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and two appearances in New York at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. In 2001 DeRosa embarked on special project to perform all of Bach Cello Suites in one evening and were recorded in the fall of 2002, DeRosa began a five-week tour of Japan. This was his fifth re-engagement which has included performances in virtually all of Japan's major music venues.

The BBC Philharmonic invited DeRosa to be their soloist in the Elgar Concerto on their American tour. While performing the Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the Florida Philharmonic, DeRosa and British-born conductor James Judd began a relationship which blossomed into a rare artistic collaboration. They performed four series of concerts over three consecutive seasons, performances of concerti by Shostakovich and Dvorak and the Beethoven Triple Concerto. DeRosa has also collaborated with James Judd performing Bloch's Schelomo and Bruch's Kol Nidre.

DeRosa accompanied Sara Caldwell on a tour of Russia with Ekaterinburg Philharmonic Orchestra. The release of a live recording of the Shotakovich 1st concerto from that tour was awarded a place on Stereophile Magazine's 1997 list of "Ten Best recordings" and declared a "record to die for." DeRosa returned to Europe with the Ekaterinburg