The BSO at Strathmore, 2009-10 Season
Where: The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda
Info: Tickets, brochures and subscriptions are available at 877-276-1444 or bsomusic.org/subscribe
Fans of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s performances at the Music Center at Strathmore will revel in the 2009-10 season offerings. Subscription tickets are on sale now for what is planned as a flight into our cultural connections.
“Our cultural and ethnic heritage is unique to each of us, and often something that plays a big role in shaping out lives,” said BSO Music Director Marin Alsop who, with this season, begins her third year at the helm of the orchestra. “What better way to explore and celebrate our cultural roots than through music?”
The discovery (and in many cases, rediscovery) of music that spans continents, centuries and genres are the magical threads running through the entire season’s programming.
“I think the whole idea of exploring cultural connections is a wonderful theme for the season because it’s a decidedly American thing to look back on our personal, ethnic history,” said BSO spokesman, Jeff Counts. “[Alsop] has a very creative way of relating to audiences and will make this theme really resonate.”
The season opens in late September with Jennifer Higdon’s “Concerto 4-3,” a tribute to America’s singular folk-country traditions. Not to be missed is the celebration of our country’s indigenous musical tunes as presented in an all-Gershwin program featuring pianist John-Yves Thibaudet. The concert will showcase rarely performed arrangements by big-band leader, Paul Whiting. In May, “Underground Railroad: An evening with Kathleen Battle” presents the legendary singer’s spiritual journey into the black American’s experience in the New World.
Hollywood, Soul and Big Bands, unique to the American musical genre, will be introduced in SuperPops splendor with Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly at the podium. With energy to spare, Everly has created a series of concerts that include Hollywood’s Oscar-winning musical themes, a tribute to Motown starring the Spectrum quartet and an evening of jazz standards with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Classical fare includes trips throughout Europe with the works of Beethoven, Bartok and Barber, while special guests Itzhak Perlman, Andre Watts and the Morgan State University Choir are welcomed throughout the season.
A reflection back on personal heritage and ethnic beginnings in America is a musical theme Counts sees as a good fit for America.
“All of us have some kind of somewhere else in us,” he said.
