Roanoke Symphony Orchestra
http://www.rso.com/blog/index.php
HAVE YOUR SAY - 13 OCT, 2008
http://www.rso.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081013-160140
As a longtime RSO musician, I know many RSO subscribers and patrons by name. And from time to time, I've heard stories about your 'favorite moments' at the RSO... a piece of music, a soloist, a chance reunion or meeting with someone special, right there at the concert.
We're calling on everyone to share their great times at RSO concerts. Tell us how long you've been coming to the RSO, tell us about the extra-special moments or experiences you've had, or tell us if you've only recently come to the RSO (for the first time).
We want to hear about your special RSO moments! So, HAVE YOUR SAY.
-Rodney
Rodney Overstreet Marketing Director RSO
(Click 'Add Comment' just below this entry. Thanks!) ]]>Welcome!
http://www.rso.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081001-114424
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!
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
]]>How hard could it be?
http://www.rso.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081001-105137
How hard could it be to play the horn in an orchestra??
Hello. My name is Wallace Easter and I’ve been principal horn with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for the past 27 years! The RSO isn’t my “day job” though. My main “gig” is Professor of Horn at Virginia Tech, a satisfying, stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable way to make a living. The RSO is a highly professional part time commitment for most of the contracted musicians but the RSO gets a lion’s share of my professional energy over and above my duties to the Music Department at Tech.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to help keep the orchestral music of the masters a vibrant component of southwest Virginia’s cultural identity. I’m also grateful for the atmosphere of appreciation which exists for the orchestra in this area. The high quality of our musical product is not the only consideration but is vitally important to achieving the larger goal of the socially interactive concert experience. A perfect concert played to an empty hall would be a devastatingly disappointing event. The importance of the audience and support staff to the musicians on stage can’t be over emphasized. From every indication I’ve seen RSO patrons, staff, Board of Directors and musicians GET IT!
This, unfortunately, is not the always the case in other cities. I’ve included a link to a recent article in the New York Times. In this article, music critic Allen Kozinn takes aim at some recent horn playing in the New York Phil. In my veiw Mr. Kozinn seems to have lost sight of the objective of public performance. Read this if you haven’t ever considered the high stakes involved in being a professional musician or are interested in reading some of the sharpest barbs ever directed at a horn player or horn section. Click here for the article. If you do get a chance to read it, I’d be interested in hearing your observations.
Sincerely, Wallace Easter Principal Horn Roanoke Symphony Orchestra
]]>Welcome to 'Have Your Say'
http://www.rso.com/blog/index.php?entry=entry081001-101008
The RSO's blog has begun! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll come again and again.
When you come to the blog, you'll notice categories listed in the right column of the page. This entry is part of the 'Have Your Say' category -- the category that will be devoted to a series of topics and questions for YOU. At least some of the topics will relate directly to the RSO concert experience, so if you haven't been to a concert of the RSO lately, please allow me to encourage you to do so!
Our first 'official' Have Your Say topic will go online right here on October 13, 2008. It will be online in time for concertgoers returning home after the Opening Night Masterworks concert on the 13th. Be sure to come back and Have Your Say. We'll look forward to it!
As the Marketing Director, one area of focus for me each year is the pricing and 'packaging' of our concert tickets. Let me know anytime how I can help you make a concert choice or how to best take advantage of any special offers in effect.
Also, I invite you to check out the RSO's other new 'new media' feature -- the podcast series 'Inside The Music'. And please feel free to drop a line here -- click the ADD Comment link below this entry.