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The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
NEWS OF NOTE
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Trial by Firebird
Nicholas Hersh will next perform
with the BSO at the Oregon
Ridge Star-Spangled Spectacular
concerts July 3 and 4.
4 O v ertur e |
When Nicholas Hersh, the BSO’s young
assistant conductor, learned that he would
be stepping up to conduct works by Ravel
and Stravinsky, he was both thrilled and
nervous. “Conducting (Stravinsky’s) Firebird
Suite with a professional orchestra is a dream
come true,” he says. The Ravel was more of a
challenge. He would be standing in for BSO
guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier, who had
fallen ill. And the orchestra was scheduled to
play Maestro Tortelier’s own arrangement of
Ravel’s Piano Trio. “Technically and stylistically,
it’s hard to conduct,” says Hersh. “In the couple
of days advance warning I had,” before stepping up the podium, “that was where I spent
the majority of my time.”
Hersh got the call when he was in Indianapolis
and rehearsed the music on the plane ride home.
“I had headphones on and the score spread
out—it was way too big to fit on the tray table,”
he says. “I had a pencil in one hand writing cues,
while I conducted with the other.”
Hersh pulled off what The Washington
Post described as “a successful trial by fire.”
For his part, Hersh thought the performance
went well. “There was lots of energy on stage
and a good deal of positive reaction from the
orchestra and audiences,” he says.
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New logo tells the BSO story
The BSO’s new logo, introduced at the season launch in March, was designed by Senior Graphic Designer
Erin Ouslander. Typeface helps to tell the story of the Orchestra’s mission, she explains. “The ‘b’ is a modern and
bold sans-serif type to represent innovation and forward thinking,” says Ouslander, while the traditional script of
the “s,” reminiscent of the BSO’s previous look, is a nod to “keeping classics and tradition alive.” Finally, the “o,” a
font typically found in textbooks for its legibility, says Ouslander “represents our focus on educational programming
and making music accessible to the community.” And in the logo at left, the 100 fashioned as an exclamation point
captures the excitement of the BSO’s upcoming anniversary season.
www. bsomusic .org