MLSO - Gustav Holst: The Planets and Lyric for Viola and Orchestra

Judy Geist, viola

Mars, the Bringer of War

Venus, The Bringer of Peace

Mercury, the Winged Messenger

Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age

Uranus, the Magician

Neptune, the Mystic

Now in its 80th 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 and Concertmaster Paul Roby.

See mlso.org for more details.

Judy Geist, Viola

Judy is a violist born in Long Island, New York who started to play the violin when she was 7 years old and from 1969 studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, graduating in 1974. During her time at the Institute she toured Europe as a member of the Long Island Youth Orchestra and during the tour performed Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart.

In 1975, after joining the Audubon Quartet, she worked at SUNY Binghamton in the string quartet program, where she gained her Masters degree.

After her education she worked as a freelance musician touring with Bert Bacharach and also performed in productions of How To Marry a Millionaire and A Little Night Music before it was performed on Broadway.

She joined the National Ballet of Canada as Principal Viola and toured North America with them, including several weeks at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. From then she settled in New York City and gave performances with several ballet orchestras. She also performed with the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, performed on Broadway and premiered and recorded new music.

As the Principal Viola of Soviet Emigre Orchestra she toured Japan, South America and nationally. She held the same position with the Philharmonia Virtuosi.

An active chamber musician she has been a member of the Society Hill String Quintet and a guest artist with the American Chamber Ensemble, the Lenox Quartet, the Music Project and the Thouvenel Quartet and has participated in several music festivals. She founded and became the artistic director of EnSemBle M. which has played at several venues on Whidbey Island and gave its East Coast premiere in 2012.

She became a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983 and was the first woman to be the chair of the viola section, gaining the position of 4th chair. Under the directorship of Christoph Eschenbach she performed as Acting Assistant Principal.

From 2001 until 2013 she worked in Washington State as the presenter of events and concerts and in the field of musical education was a residential artist at Seattle’s Cornish College. She has also given presentations in Philadelphia

She commissioned When the Peace Comes which is a work for solo viola by the composer Hannibal Okumbe which she has performed at several venues. Another commission was written by Sylvia Glickman.

Working as a visual artist, she has presented her work, which consists of chamber music and paintings, at several local venues.

Recordings she has performed on include Carol by The American Boychoir, Don’t Let Go by George Duke, Get It Right by Aretha Franklin, Love Songs by Michael Franks, Philip Glass: The Photographer by Philip Glass, Cool and Bossa by Helen Merrill, Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 “Pathetique”/Dumka by The Philadelphia Orchestra, Sondheim by Stephen Sondheim and For Ever, For Always, For Love by Luther Vandross and the soundtracks of Fame and Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street along with many others.

Photo credit: Jessica Griffin

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. While in Pittsburgh he taught percussion and conducted the percussion ensemble at Duquesne University, was assistant conductor of the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra, and appeared on PBS' nationally syndicated Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, performing marimba and percussion solos.

Beyond his over 90 commercial recordings as principal timpani of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Liuzzi can be heard on several Decca releases with Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, with which he has been a guest timpanist for twelve seasons. As a former percussionist with the Network for New Music, and also for area composers, he has recorded contemporary chamber works for the CRI, Crystal, and Albany labels. His percussion solo and chamber CD release from 2012, Movement in Time (Equilibrium), is volume I of the Philadelphia Percussion Project. This first volume features music by Maurice Wright, Maurice Rissman, and William Kraft. Volume II, Zones, was released in May 2015 and is a Philadelphia Orchestra percussion group (POPG) recording featuring Jennifer Higdon's Zones, as well as six other world premiere recordings including his own composition, Seoul Spirit. A participating musician in the documentary film Music from the Inside Out (2005), Mr. Liuzzi also served as the film's coordinating producer and was integral in helping develop the accompanying middle school teaching curriculum published by Alfred Books. The feature length film by Anker Productions, which features The Philadelphia Orchestra, was re-released digitally on iTunes in June 2013 and is also available on Netflix. Mr. Liuzzi's other electronic media activity (under his company name of Beat the Drum Entertainment, Inc.) has included two other CD projects with the DePue Brothers Band: performing drums and singing, and executive producing Weapons of Grass Construction and their latest album, When It's Christmas Time, released in December 2013.

Mr. Liuzzi has given master classes at most major music schools throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Korea, Japan, and China. He has been a percussion and timpani coach at the National Orchestral Institute, the New World Symphony, the Pacific Music Festival, the Canton International Summer Music Academy, the Lindenbaum Music Festival (in Korea), the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the National Youth Orchestra USA run by Carnegie Hall. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in January 1994. He has also held faculty positions at Rowan University and guest faculty status at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Liuzzi just completed 10 years as music director of the Philadelphia All City High School Orchestra, and is founding conductor of the Curtis Institute's 20-21 New Music Ensemble.

Mr. Liuzzi's early orchestral experience included the Flint Symphony, the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra, and the Colorado Philharmonic. He has also played in the Spoleto Festival Orchestra for three seasons and was a Tanglewood Fellow in 1980. In July 1996 he made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and his subscription solo debut in January 1998. Having consulted with Yamaha for over 20 years on the development of professional timpani and percussion, he is a Yamaha performing artist, with a highly-regarded Yahama Global YouTube interview and performance. He is married with two adult daughters.

Paul is Associate Principal 2nd Violin of the Philadelphia Orchestra

Sandra and David Marshall Chair

Paul Roby’s first lessons were from his parents, a violinist and an oboist. His early studies continued with Mary Crowder-Hess and Roman Totenberg, students of Ivan Galamian and Carl Flesch, respectively. At the age of 16 Mr. Roby was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied violin with Yumi Ninomiya Scott and Jascha Brodsky, members of the Curtis Quartet. Immediately after graduation from Curtis, Mr. Roby won a position with the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman and soon after became a member of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1991 Mr. Roby became a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and in November 2000 was named associate principal second violin.

Mr. Roby made his solo debut at age 12 with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and has since won such prizes as the best Wieniawski Polonaise Prize at the Wieniawski-Lipinski Competition in Lublin, Poland, and the Davidoff Prize for Outstanding Artistry at the 1989 Schleswig-Holstein Festival. As a founding member of the Salzau Quartet, Mr. Roby played a command performance for German President Weizäcker at his official residence.

MLSO Photos by Chris Swisher

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