Symphony Planning for Coming Season

A continuation of this season's ‘Sound Partnerships,’ the upcoming 2009-2010 season for the Westfield Symphony Orchestra will offer a six-performance season that includes opera, dance, and holiday festivities.

Noted as a “Distinguished Arts Organization” by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the symphony offers residents of Westfield and the surrounding areas a fully professional orchestra with only union musicians.

Barbara Timko, the symphony's operations manager, explained that the WSO has a “unique situation that it is in a small town” but offers a maestro that is a “fabulous world class musician.”

Maestro David Wroe, the conductor and music director, is also the music director for the Theatro Grattacielo in Manhattan and a regular conductor for the New York City Opera, among others.  Both Wroe and the orchestra are involved in community outreach programs, such as the WSO’s partnerships with Westfield School of Dance and New Jersey Music Teachers’ Association.

Timko says that the upcoming season aims to draw people in that might not have a strong interest in orchestral music, so that their horizons might be expanded. A returning favorite is the New Year’s Eve Celebration in Westfield High School. This year “The Great American Songbook” will feature Broadway selections and even promises to include Broadway performers. It has been so popular that there is an advance tickets option, as it is “virtually sold out a week before New Year’s Eve every year,” explained Timko.

The first performance of the season is Hope Against Hope, a collaboration with the New York Opera Society to Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in the Central Presbyterian Church in Summit on September 26. On Saturday, October 24, at The Presbyterian Church in Westfield, Halloween costumes will be worn and Saint-Saens’s Symphony #3 will be played during a performance of Dracula, A Musical! A new rendition of Bela Lugosi’s work, the musical will be a fresh performance of the debut of this symphonic score.

Dance lovers will delight on Saturday, February 20, at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, as “Variations On A Latin Beat” features works by Missy Mazzoli, Gershwin, and De Falla. Tango master Carolina Jaurena will perform tango numbers to these orchestral selections.

The “Stars of Tomorrow” competition returns for a second year, as young music scholars compete on Sunday, April 11th at The Presbyterian Church in Westfield. Works include Britten and Stravinsky. The closing show, “We The People,” on May 8th at The Presbyterian Church in Westfield, offers attendees classic musical selections of Wagner, Xian, and Beethoven.