ALetterfromtheMaestro Welcome to the good ship ASO! We are flying into my second year as Music Director propelled by the strong tailwinds of our 75th Anniversary season, and I have to say it has been a joy taking up the rudder of this amazing institution. Together with you, we are exploring what vitality an orchestra can bring to our community, the surging city of Alexandria. What are our core beliefs as an arts institution? We are committed to the following: 1. connection-discovery, 2. bringing the old and the new into constructive conversation, 3. being local, 4. loosening up the idea of what an orchestra is and how a concert unfolds, and 5. bringing the voices of women and composers from diverse backgrounds to our stage. Our season includes familiar music of Beethoven, Wagner, Dvořák, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as unfamiliar gems by Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, Duke Ellington, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Gabriela Lena Frank. On our opening program, we will premiere an Imaginary Symphony constructed in the recesses of my brain out of movements from unfairly forgotten works, and on our final concert, a newly-commissioned piece bringing the ASO into musical community onstage with Sympatico, our thriving music education program. Although we are dead serious about what orchestral music and concerts can do for Alexandria and about the crushing need for art’s humanizing impact in today’s world, we hope you’ll join us in exploring how concerts that are not afraid of surprises and serendipity might make concert-going events that are both fun and moving for you and for listeners of all ages. Hop on board−the voyage starts when the whistle blows.
7
