Oregon East Symphony
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| Oregon East Symphony | |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Classical |
| Years active | 1986–present |
The Oregon East Symphony is an orchestra based in Pendleton, Oregon, United States. It has been described as "the best small-town symphony orchestra in North America", and "the most remotely situated full symphony orchestra on the planet", and is one of the premiere Oregon symphonies.[citation needed] Highlights of the orchestra's repertoire include ongoing cycles of the orchestral works of Beethoven and Mahler, as well as major works by Elgar, Mozart, Hindemith, Rachmaninoff and Dvorak. The orchestra has also presented world-premieres of works by composers including Emily Doolittle, John McKinnon, Leandro Espinosa, Margaret Mayer and the film-composer Christopher Thomas.
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[edit] History
The Oregon East Symphony was created in 1986 by a consortium of local musicians and music lovers who wanted to establish a community orchestra in Pendleton, Oregon. Pendleton, population 15,000, is over 200 miles from the nearest metropolitan area, and the OES quickly became known as the "most remotely situated full symphony orchestra on the planet."
Early on, the organization came to include its own chorale. The orchestra's first music director was Lee Friese, who served in that position for 14 years until resigning in 1999.
Friese's tenure had become controversial in his last years. Notably, Friese refused to allow guest conductors to be involved in the organization, which meant that many of the musicians had never played for another conductor. Friese's resignation was the result of a long-running dispute with the board of directors over their wish to bring in other conductors as guests. When it became clear that their differences would not be resolved, the board offered Friese a one-year contract, which he refused to accept.
Friese had built very close relationships with many musicians in the orchestra, and took a number of his friends and students with him to form another orchestra. Although also based in Pendleton, the new orchestra, Inland Northwest Musicians, specialized in run-out concerts to smaller rural communities. However, controversially, the new orchestra scheduled its rehearsals and concerts to conflict with OES services, and Friese expressly forbade his players to work with the OES.
In the summer of 1999, the orchestra was at a crossroads. Battered and bruised from the acrimonious parting with their former music director, the board nervously planned a transitional season. They invited five conductors from throughout the region to serve as guest conductors and potential music director candidates. Although it was a nervous moment for the organization, ticket sales set a record high, as did the annual fund drive.
Meanwhile, in nearby La Grande, Oregon, the Grande Ronde Symphony, resident orchestra at Eastern Oregon University, had just appointed Kenneth Woods, conductor as their new music director. Woods was just completing a one-year appointment as assistant conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony, having studied conducting at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In the Fall of 99, the OES invited Kenneth Woods to conduct the first half of a planned concert. Woods performance of Mozart's Paris Symphony instantly made him the front-runner for the open music directorship, and he was appointed as the second music director of the Oregon East Symphony and Chorale in the spring of 2000.
In his first full season, Woods' placed an emphasis on inviting guest artists of international stature, expanding the orchestra's repertoire and initiating collaborations with other area performing-arts organizations, culminating in a regional tour of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the combined forces of the OES and GRSO and five regional choirs. The project became the subject of a TV documentary. At the end of the year, however, the OES's Executive Director Catherine Muller (also the orchestra's principal flutist) resigned. Muller's leadership had been widely credited with managing the difficult transition period so successfully. She was replaced by Cheryl Marier, at that time the president of the board of directors. Marier was also a musician in the orchestra (its principal oboist), and a doctor. Marier essentially left her medical practice to take on the challenge of running the orchestra.
Woods and Marier proved to be a formidable combination- early on they began to expand the organization's youth programs, eventually creating an umbrella project called Playing for Keeps, which became one of the largest and fastest-growing programs of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, eventually comprising two training orchestras, two youth choirs, a summer music camp, a scholarship program for music lessons and a fund to support instrument rental.
Woods' career was rapidly evolving. In the spring of his first full season he was invited by conductor Leonard Slatkin to be one of four conductors selected for a showcase concert with the National Symphony as part of the National Conducting Institute. Woods' work with the NSO was covered in major feature pieces and reviews in the New York Times, Musical America and the Washington Post- suddenly the "most remotely situated orchestra on the planet" was being talked about by the East Coast classical establishment.
Speculation was widespread in 2001-2 that Woods would leave the organization, and in February 2002 he did resign his position as Music Director of the Grande Ronde Symphony and professor at Eastern Oregon University to move to Cardiff, Wales, where wife, the violinist Suzanne Casey, was based. However, Woods did not leave the Oregon East Symphony. Instead, the orchestra agreed to change from having weekly rehearsals to a more condensed schedule, enabling Woods to commute from the UK.
In these years, the personality of the orchestra began to change significantly. As the orchestra neared its 20th season, many founding members were nearing retirement, and the long decline of music education in the region took its toll. Gradually, the orchestra changed from being a volunteer organization to a mixture of a talented local core who were reiforced in the final rehearsals and concert by freelancers from throughout the region. During this period, one critic hailed the OES as "without doubt, the best rural orchestra in North America."
In celebration of the orchestra's 20th season Woods' programmed Mahler's Symphony no. 2, one of the largest pieces in the orchestral liturature. The sheer audacity of mounting such a piece in such a remote location drew curious listeners from throughout the region. In the end, the performance attracted some of the best musicians in the Northwest, and the concert was hailed as a major triumph. The musicians by this point had translated the now famous "best rural orchestra" comment into the now famous moniker "The Best Goddamn Redneck Orchestra on the Planet."
With twenty successful years behind them, and a Mahler symphony under their belt, the organization looked forward with confidence to their 21st, but it proved in many ways the most challenging year in the organization's history. Early on, the orchestra struggled in the final stages of transition to new executive leadership, Marier having returned to medical practice two years earlier. Then, in March 2007, the orchestra made national news for the worst of reasons- a massive fire, started as a result of negligence in the nearby Eagles lodge consumed the orchestra's Main Street offices, teaching studios, board room and music libraries. Twenty years of carefully marked parts, concert recordings and archives were lost in a matter of hours.
Word of the orchestra's plight spread quickly over the internet, largely through Woods' blog, A vew from the podium and donations poured in from all over the country. In addition to much needed cash, the orchestra also received donations of music from the National Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Oregon Symphony and as far away as Australia and the UK.
The orchestra's misfortune also had one other positive effect- it drew the first nationally known critic, David Stabler of the Oregonian, to Pendleton. The orchestra had planned to conclude the season with Mahler's First Symphony (the performance of the 2nd had been assumed to be a once-in-a-lifetime project, but was such a huge success that the orchestra decide to keep playing Mahler in Woods' words "until someone stops us or it stops being fun."), but that project was thrown into doubt by the fire.
In the end, the orchestra decided to go ahead as planned, and Stabler was so inpressed by what he saw that he wrote a multi-page feature on the orchestra for the Oregonian. He wrote of the experience "In 20 years of being a music critic, I have never written a story like this...about Pendleton's symphony pulling out all the stops to play Mahler's First Symphony after a devastating fire.... Early into it, I realized it wasn't just about Mahler, but about other things, too: overcoming fear, exhaustion and doubt, finding your musical passion again and the power of belief."
[edit] General information
The Oregon East Symphony and Chorale offer a subscrption series of five classical concerts and perform and yearly Holiday Concert, which often features other local ensembles. In 2001, the OES founded a new training orchestra, the A Sharp Players, who are conducted by Kenneth Woods and Travis Sipher. The A #s offer their own series of concerts and also perform annually at area schools.
The orchestra's primary home is Vert Auditorium, a 1930's era building whose acoustics and facilities are often derided as inadiquate and outdated.
[edit] Youth Programs
Playing for Keeps is a unique and comprehensive music education project, which was initiated in 2001 by the Oregon East Symphony Board of Directors, and the orchestra's Executive Director a that time Cheryl Marier and Music Director Kenneth Woods.
The Goals of the project are:
· To help rural young people gain access to new cultural opportunities.
· To forge new alliances between the OES and local school districts.
· To give young people who cannot afford musical instruction and/or instruments a chance to participate in music lessons, rehearsal and performance.
· To develop a new awareness concerning the role of a community orchestra and chorus in the cultural health of Eastern Oregon.
Ten Projects make up the Playing for Keeps project:
- A-Sharp Players This preparatory orchestra is open by audition to mid-level musicians of any age and gives them the opportunity to experience performing with a large ensemble. The program is directed by Ken Woods, conductor of the Oregon East Symphony.
- Preludes The Preludes string orchestra is open to beginning to intermediate string musicians of any age who can read music. Travis Sipher, Pendleton High School orchestra director and assistant principal cellist with the OES, directs this group.
- Young Voices/Very Young Voices of Eastern Oregon This choral group gives young people 6-16 the opportunity to perform in a choir that develops reading and ensemble skills.
- Music Lesson and Instrument Scholarships Students are supported in the study of their chosen instrument through a fund that helps with the cost of music lessons and instrument rental.
- Musician Scholarships Young people who perform with the Symphony or Chorale are provided with stipends and travel costs for each concert that they participate in. This allows them to pursue their musical studies instead of having to hold down part-time jobs.
- Young Artists Competition A professional review panel conducts competitive auditions for young musicians in the region. Winners of this competition are invited to perform with the Symphony as a featured soloist.
- Family and Young People’s Concerts This annual concert features the winners of the Symphony’s Young Artists Competition and offers a youth-oriented concert program. The concert is also performed again twice during a weekday for school groups from the area.
- Tickets for Kids During each school year, the OES distributes free regular season concert tickets to area youth throughout the school system.
- School Visits As a supplement to the public school arts curriculum, OES musicians, guest artists, and singers arrange visits to area classrooms during the school year in order to deliver master classes, instrument demonstrations, and ensemble performances.
- Music Camp Each summer, young musicians from all over the Pacific Northwest participate in the annual Summer Music Camp. The five-day camp features professional instruction and tutorials in a variety of musical disciplines and ends with a Finale Concert.
[edit] Oregon East Symphony Chorale
From early on, the OES organization included a volunteer symphony chorus. From 1985-1999, the chorale was directed by Lee Friese. During the tenure of Kenneth Woods, the choir has been directed by Woods and a number of guest conductors and chorus masters, including Cyril Myers, Randal Thomas, Cheryl Carlson, Michael Frasier, and William Mayclin.
Chorale highlights of recent years include performances of Dvorak's Stabat Mater, Mahler's Symphony no. 2, Beethoven's Symphony no. 9, Mozart's C Minor Mass, the Bach Christmas Oratorio and Bizet's Carmen, all under the direction of Kenneth Woods. The chorale also performs on the annual holiday concerts, where it often focuses on light, seasonal repertoire under the direction of the chorus master.
