Quiet
by Jennifer Melick
Revolution
Shhhh…. Don’t look now, but there’s an orchestra at a library near you.
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Washington County Free Library in Hagerstown, Maryland, site of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s “Let’s Talk Music” discussion series
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t the first chamber concert presented as part of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s new “Symphony In Your Neighborhood” series in October, people showed up in droves to hear a string quartet from the orchestra play Mendelssohn, Frank Bridge, Boccherini, and the Beatles. A few even had to be turned away—the performance space, holding only about 120 people, was the Toco Hill branch of the DeKalb County Public Library, about seven miles northeast of the Woodruff Arts Center, the ASO’s main concert hall.
“The ‘Symphony in Your Neighborhood’ partnership has been a big success for both the Atlanta Symphony and DeKalb County Public Library, and shows what can happen when two great organizations work together,” says Janet Florence, a public information officer for the DeKalb County Public Library. “Each program thus far has been filled to capacity or attracted an overflow crowd.” Ahmad Mayes, the ASO’s manager of community programs, says when the ASO first announced the news about the program, “For about two weeks there wasn’t a day that I didn’t see something new about the library symphony
SPRING 2014