In Thursday’s (6/23) NashvilleScene (Tennessee), John Pitcher reports that Nashville Symphony Orchestra Principal English horn Roger Wiesmeyer has launched the Nashville Concerto Orchestra. “Inspiration for the new group dates back to the 1990s, when Wiesmeyer was freelancing with the San Francisco Symphony,” where he met pianist Seth Montfort, founder of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra. Wiesmeyer began talking with Larissa Maestro “of the chamber-pop trio Poly.… Maestro, who hadn’t studied classical music since high school, was intrigued…. The new group, as devised by Wiesmeyer and Maestro, will be open to Middle Tennessee professionals, amateurs, teachers and students, who will perform quarterly. Musicians who play in four concerts will earn the right to perform a concerto, conduct the ensemble or have one of their original compositions performed.” The orchestra’s first program, June 25, featured soloists including Nashville Symphony Principal Bassoon Gil Perel; Matthew Phelps, music director at West End United Methodist Church; and cellist Michael Samis and conductor Gregory Wolynec of Clarksville’s Gateway Chamber Orchestra. “Violinist Zach Casebolt, who’ll … perform J.S. Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor [is] probably best known in Nashville … as one of Ray Price’s The Cherokee Cowboys…. He jumped at the chance to play with the new and infinitely inclusive Nashville Concerto Orchestra.”
Posted June 28, 2016
