Haydn & Sibelius
Jotaro Nakano, conductor & Music Director Finalist
Benjamin Wright, trumpet
BOULANGER
D’un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)
SIMON
The Block
HAYDN
Trumpet Concerto in Eb
SIBELIUS
Symphony No. 2
Jotaro Nakano, conductor
Benjamin Wright, trumpet
Benefiting Augustus A. White III Institute for Healthcare Equity
CONCERTO SPONSOR:
Drs. Leonard Zon and Lynda Schneider
About the Community Partner
The Augustus A. White III Institute’s mission is to support, educate, and advocate for those affected by healthcare disparities. The Institute is based and inspired by the life and experiences of world-renowned orthopedic surgeon and medical educator Dr. Augustus A. White III. By focusing on targeted communications to impacted groups, providing community focused services and collaborating with essential stakeholders, the Institute will improve the quality of healthcare services provided to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, marital status and/or sexual orientation.
About the Music Director Finalist
Photo by Joel Benjamin
Jotaro Nakano, conductor
Japanese-American conductor Jotaro Nakano is a Southern California native, currently pursuing a doctorate degree under the instruction of Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. As an impassioned citizen artist, Jotaro is always seeking to connect and inspire underprivileged communities with the deeply moving and uplifting powers of art and music.
In 2021, Jotaro was appointed as the Peabody Arts in Health Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Building upon the partnership of both institutions, the Arts in Health Fellowship was created to integrate music with medicine in places of healthcare for the medical community of Baltimore. Through meaningful collaborations both with artists and medical professionals, Jotaro explores the healing possibilities of art and music within clinical environments. Jotaro’s most recent projects have included the “Johns Hopkins Hospital Pandemic Playlist,” a series of playlists curated from over three hundred submissions from our hospital staff; and “Music for H.O.P.E.,” a video concert dedicated to our medical workers, recorded in Johns Hopkins’ historic Hurd Hall.
Since its founding in 2019, Jotaro has served as director and conductor of the Chamber String Orchestra of the SA’Oaxaca Strings International Music Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. SA’Oaxaca is the first tuition-free chamber string music festival in Oaxaca with the mission to provide “excellent educational opportunities to underserved Mexican string instrumentalists, and increase the study and promotion of Latin American and Hispanic chamber music compositions.” Since its founding, SA’Oaxaca has welcomed hundreds of Mexican musicians and performed for countless communities and audiences. Jotaro is privileged to work with these talented students through this intercultural exchange of art.
Previously, Jotaro served as Music Director of the Ann Arbor Camerata, Cover Conductor for the Baltimore Symphony, and Conducting Fellow of the Long Beach Symphony. Jotaro has conducted orchestras in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Romania, and all across the United States. With every new project, Jotaro’s commitment is to maximize artistic collaboration to fill the world with wonder and hope.
About the Soloist
Benjamin Wright, trumpet
Benjamin Wright joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra trumpet section in July 2002 as fourth trumpet. From 2006 to 2009, he was acting assistant principal trumpet of the BSO, and in 2010 became second trumpet.
Wright began playing the violin at age three, and the trumpet when he was ten. He hails from a long line of musicians going back to his great-great-grandfather, a bandleader and cornetist in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.
Wright studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy and received his bachelor's in music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1996 Wright won the International Trumpet Guild and National Trumpet competitions, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, and was awarded the Bernard Adelstein Prize for trumpet performance upon graduating in 1997.
Following two years as a member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Wright spent two years as a member of the Chicago Symphony. He has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. His appearances as guest principal trumpet with the San Francisco Symphony included performances of Mahler's Eighth Symphony.
Benjamin Wright has given masterclasses around the world including at The Curtis Institute, Juilliard, Yale, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Temple University, Mannes, SMU, Baylor, and Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has been a guest faculty member for the Bar Harbor Brass Institute, the National Orchestral Institute, and, since 2003, a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center and The New England Conservatory.
In 2020, Wright created T5 - Training Trumpeters to Teach Themselves - an intensive online program for students around the world which includes access to the Sound Truth Library - over 20 hours of recorded excerpts, solos, etudes, and tutorials recorded in his home studio.
His students have performed as members of the Atlanta, Dallas, Utah, Sarasota, and Seattle Symphonies, as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and orchestras in Asia.
Ben lives in Newton, where he loves spending time with his wife, Miriam, and sons Ethan and Sam.
Mr. Wright is a Yamaha Performing Artist.
Audience Health and Safety
Longwood Symphony, at its core, is deeply committed to the health and safety of our audience, musicians and staff.
Guests must be fully vaccinated again COVID-19. Masks are recommended.
All audience members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (including a BOOSTER for all who are eligible). Ushers will no longer be checking for vaccination proof upon arrival. Please visit our Health & Safety Guidelines page for more details and to review additional protocols.
Exchanges and ticket donations can be made up to 24 hours in advance of the originally ticketed concert date by emailing info@longwoodsymphony.org or calling 617-987-0100. We cannot guarantee the same seats will be available for the exchanged concert. Refunds will be offered if you are unable to exchange or donate. Subject to availability.
Discounts for groups of 10 or more are available. Please contact info@longwoodsymphony.org or call 617-987-0100 to arrange.
All programs are subject to change.