ABOUT the conductor
James Ogle, a graduate of the University of Michigan, is entering his 21st season as Artistic Director/Conductor of theBoise Philharmonic.

In 1974, he won the North Carolina Symphony’s Young Conductor Competition and was a winner of the Malko International Conductor’s Competition held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mr. Ogle appeared with the International Festival of Young Artists Orchestra in Lysin, Switzerland, and won Virginia’s James Bland Memorial Scholarship. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, and in 1980, with Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein and Sir Colin Davis at the renowned Tanglewood Music Festival, the summer home of the Boston Symphony.

Prior to his appointment in Boise, Mr. Ogle served as Associate Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony. During this time, he was also Conductor-in-Residence at Appalachian State University’s Cannon Music Camp. He organized and founded the North Carolina Symphony’s summer residence in Boone in 1982 and served as conductor and artistic director for twelve years. Mr. Ogle returns to North Carolina each year to conduct Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony and New Bern Choral Society, a twenty-four year old tradition. He also has been a guest conductor or clinician at summer festivals, orchestras, and universities, most recently with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle.

During his tenure with the Boise Philharmonic, Mr. Ogle has raised the artistic and technical level of the orchestra, hiring players whose backgrounds include training at the best music schools in the country. In addition to his music pursuits, he is an avid tennis player and enjoys skiing with his family.

A little history... Handel's Messiah
In the summer of 1741 Handel, at the peak of his musical prowess but depressed and in debt, began setting Charles Jennens' Biblical libretto to music at his usual breakneck speed. In just 24 days, Messiah was complete. Like many of Handel's compositions, it borrows liberally from earlier works, both his own and those of others. Tradition has it that Handel wrote the piece while staying as a guest at Jennens' country house (Gopsall Hall) in Leicestershire, England, although no evidence exists to confirm this. It is thought that the work was completed inside a garden temple, the ruins of which have been preserved and can be visited.

It was premiered during the following season, in the spring of 1742, as part of a series of charity concert on Fishamble Street near Dublin's Temple Bar district. Right up to the day of the premiere, Messiah was troubled by production difficulties and last-minute rearrangements of the score, and the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Jonathan Swift placed some pressure on the premiere and had it cancelled entirely for a period. He demanded that it be retitled A Sacred Oratorio and that revenue from the concert be promised to local hospitals for the mentally ill. The premiere happened on 13 April at the Music Hall in Dublin, and Handel led the performance from the harpsichord with Matthew Dubourg conducting the orchestra. Dubourg was an Irish violinist, conductor and composer. He had worked with Handel as early as 1719 in London.

Handel conducted Messiah many times and, as was his custom, often altered the music to suit the needs of the singers and orchestra he had available to him for each performance. In consequence, no single version can be regarded as the "authentic" one. Many more variations and rearrangements were added in subsequent centuries—a notable arrangement was one by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, translated into German.