CONCERT SEASON BEGINS OCT. 2
50th
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classical music by combining it with contemporary music and instru-ments.
Also new this year is the option for students to perform in
chamber ensembles.
Scanlon sees the youth orchestra as much more than just performing.
“It boosts their confidence,” she says. “It creates leaders.”
Funded through grants, donations, fundraising events and ticket
sales, the previously all-volunteer symphony is now able to offer a
stipend to its performers.
“We’re able to hire more qualified musicians and perform a more
advanced repertoire,” Maynard says.
The orchestra boasts a full roster of 72 players, all local.
“And when you actually have full sections, there’s more variety of
music available to you,” Maynard continues.
For the last six years, the symphony has called the Wilson Center
at Cape Fear Community College home, and it’s been a welcome
change from the Kenan Auditorium on the University of North Carolina
Wilmington campus because of its greater capacity and superior
acoustics. “It’s a better experience on the whole,” Scanlon says.
The 50th anniversary concert is scheduled for Feb. 20, 2022,
50 years to the day of the first concert. Tickets went on sale in August.
The orchestra will be highlighting its greatest hits of the last half-
century and Errante’s favorites. A soirée with food and wine will be
held before the concert, and there will be an opportunity to mix and
mingle with the musicians afterward.
But Scanlon is quick to add that Wilmington Symphony concerts
are not intended to be buttoned-up events.
“Stiff and stodgy is not what we’re after,” she says. “It’s a party!”
The anniversary will be trumpeted during the entire 2021-22
season, which begins on Oct. 2 with a show featuring Paolo Gualdi
on piano playing works by Bizet and Chopin. It includes the world
premiere of Errante’s newly commissioned work, Azalea Suite, and
Beethoven Lives Upstairs,
where actors from Thalian
Association Community
Theatre will join the musicians
on stage.
A N N I V E R S A R Y
The 50th anniversary concert is
scheduled for Feb. 20, 2022.
COURTESY OF WSO