{ In History }
British composer Gustav Holst completed The Planets in 1916, the same year the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was created. While the piece went on to become Holst’ s most popular work, the composer himself preferred other works and lamented the popularity of The Planets. Holst’ s own favorite movement was“ Saturn.”
Michael Tammaro( Everly).
{ In The Fa m ily }
Mother and daughter take the stage
When Janice Chandler-Eteme performed the Star Spangled Banner for the BSO’ s centennial concert in February, her daughter Josie was in the audience. And while the sixth-grader certainly was there( with her older sister and father) to see her mother perform, there was someone else to look up to.“ She was so excited to see Joshua Bell,” says Chandler-Eteme, a soprano who has performed many times for the BSO over the years, with both Marin Alsop and Yuri Temirkanov at the podium.
Josie, 11, has followed her mother’ s musical path, though her chosen instrument is the violin— hence her fascination with Bell. And Josie wasn’ t at the Gala as an observer only, says Chandler-Eteme. As a member of the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra, she was also a guest musician.
Janice Chandler-Eteme, right, and her daughter Josie, above, were both part of the BSO’ s anniversary festivities, as was Joshua Bell.
{ In Com m unit y }
BSO Fellow hopes to strengthen partnerships
If Rhea Beckett were to choose a word to best describe her current career goals, it might well be“ community.” The Ohio native, who recently joined the BSO for a six-month Urban Arts Leadership Fellowship through the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, says she hopes to become involved in the BSO’ s ongoing partnerships with Baltimore organizations— as well as working to establish more.“ We’ re looking for creative ways to connect with what other groups do in the community,” says Beckett, who is also a
Rhea Beckett graduate student in curatorial practice at MICA.
Beckett helped the BSO to promote the April production of Porgy and Bess, as well as the special community concert scheduled for May 6. She will also help the BSO coordinate a convening of musicians from targeted orchestra fellowship programs at the June 2016 League of American Orchestras conference, which the BSO is hosting here in Baltimore. These special projects are all part of the BSO’ s larger effort to make the 21 st century orchestra a more diverse, inclusive place to work, perform and visit. As a leader in Baltimore’ s cultural community, she says,“ The BSO is constantly asking,‘ how do you think about diversity and inclusion in a healthy and holistic way?’ It’ s about getting the community involved at a very basic level,” she says. Creating partnerships with local organizations from colleges and churches to small businesses, Beckett says, will expand the reach of the BSO in the community while helping to build new audiences. Beckett herself is a classically trained mezzo soprano. And though she has never performed Porgy, she says,“ I’ m very familiar with it, being an African American vocalist.”
Beckett’ s fellowship is made possible in part by the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Students from OrchKids and BSYO performed the evening’ s final piece, Ravel’ s Boléro, which began with the young people walking down the aisles to the Meyerhoff stage.“ It was very dramatic to see the kids march in,” recalls Chandler-Eteme.
The soprano’ s opening performance was also a surprise to the audience.“ Marin asked me to wait until the orchestra started and then walk out,” says Chandler-Eteme.“ She created a dramatic entrance for me.”
{ In SuperPops }
Good Morning, Everly!
Pops COnductor extended 5 years
Jack Everly, the BSO’ s Principal Pops Conductor, has extended his contract with the orchestra for an additional four years. Maestro Everly, who also heads the Pops programs for the Indianapolis Symphony, Naples Philharmonic and the National Arts Centre orchestras, has been a leading force in Pops programming for more than two decades. As founder and music director of the Symphonic Pops Consortium, Maestro Everly has helped produce inventive programming – like Classic FM, and next season’ s Broadway ' s Leading Men. Jack, we’ re glad to have you!
Jack Everly
May – June 2016 | Overture 5