Having just completed my first year of managing an arts and cultural organization, I am excited to begin a second year. First, the Roanoke Valley has a wonderfully talented individual who has dedicated the past twelve years to strengthening the quality of music at the RSO – Maestro David Wiley. The two of us are charged with carrying out the mission of the RSO. David lends his expertise to developing and performing musical repertoires that appeal to the community and I use my experience and knowledge to manage a fiscally strong organization.
I have spent the last thirty years working in health and human services non-profits and this has been a wonderful new direction for me. I have become enamored with orchestral music. Having raised a musician I was not a stranger to the musical genre, she studied classical music throughout her life and attained a degree in music. But I recently took a 48 hour course called “Listening to and Understanding Great Music” by The Teaching Company and it has moved to a new level of enjoyment.
There is so much in the music that I did not perceive until I had the key to unlock that door of understanding. What makes me sad is that I was not taught this in school. I remember (painfully) learning about the hidden meanings of poetry and prose and it opened up a love of reading all forms of writing that has followed me throughout my life. I wish I had this musical knowledge earlier because it now is helping me to understand some mathematic prinicples that eluded me for most of my adult life. I even took a Music Appreciation course in college, but it did not cover the music construction and the different musical genres and how the societies the composers where living in shaped the music. I have fallen in love with something that was in front of me all the time. What I want now is to get this information into the flexible minds of children. The RSO has some good music education programs, but I think we could do more to work with the schools. I hope the community will send us suggestions of ways to strengthen music education for children.
As a relative newbie to this beautiful region – moved here in 2001 – I continue to be impressed by the Roanoke Valley’s commitment to having a thriving arts and cultural community. I invite you to let me know ways we can better meet the community’s need for music. See you at our next concert!
Beth Pline
Executive Director
Roanoke Symphony Orchestra
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