As Music Director & Conductor, it is my pleasure to welcome to your Roanoke Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-2009 season, and to our RSO blog. In the weeks and months ahead, I'll hope you'll join me as I write about what's going on musically with the RSO. And I hope you will keep in touch with your orchestra and chorus by coming to hear the music for yourself! Music is truly a living art form, expressed with creativity, thoughtfulness, breath and motion. It speaks for us and to us, where our words alone cannot. Our 2008-2009 season exemplifies the 'Power of Music'. So I welcome you to read along, and then I invite you to experience the power within the music at a live concert, as often as you can.
When putting together the musical programs each season, often a year or more in advance, I work toward selections and programs that compliment each other, and strive to create a cohesive whole. This season, you'll find titles, and underlying themes that I hope will spark an even greater meaning for us. The titles of this season's Masterworks concerts include Heroes & Homecomings, Spirit Over Oppression, Voices of Hope, Home & Community -- among others. In most cases, these titles have a direct connection to one or more of the musical selections -- the sort of information you can find in various RSO resources if you aren't already familiar with the music. Our printed RSO Program Guides, distributed in the lobby prior to each concert, offer background information about each piece and its composer. Our friend Janet Bedell writes these notes, and they offer truly interesting and informative insight. If you don't have a chance to read all the notes at a concert, I encourage you to take your Program home and read Jan's excellent notes. Prior to each Masterworks concert, my Illuminations discussion is open to each and every ticket holder. Please come join the growing audience at Illuminations one hour before concert time for each Masterworks concert. And don't worry about what to wear -- whatever is comfortable for you (barring shorts) is just fine for us. It's really all about the music.
In our exciting new podcast series, Inside the Music, I discuss each Masterworks program with Steve Brown of WVTF Public Radio with recorded examples. If you aren't already familiar with every piece of music on this season's RSO Masterworks Series, then this is your chance to get the 'inside scoop' on this exciting music.
Of course, each listener will take away a unique reaction and experience when hearing the music for themselves. Like a great novel, hearing a great symphony -- the first time or just one of many times -- can take you on a journey, uniquely experienced by you. It is my hope that each Masterworks program will inspire you, make you think, and provide a needed time away from the ordinary into the extraordinary. I invite you to come to our exciting Opening Night concert this season, hear the music, and you will come away with your own meaning of the program's title, Heroes & Homecomings.
Once again, all of us at the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Chorus hope you will join us for as many programs as you can. Thanks to you, the RSO continues to be a great success story. See you soon at the RSO!
Your Music Director & Conductor,
David Wiley
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