“What started as a collaboration of amateur orchestral musicians 100 years ago has matured into a professional symphony that draws musicians from across the United States,” writes Daniel Higgins in Monday’s (10/7) Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin). But this year, says Green Bay Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Dan Linssen, it’s going to be “more than” just great music. There will be “themed evenings at the Weidner Center with displays and activities before each concert…. ‘I’d like to connect the symphony as an organization with other arts and nonprofits in the community more,’ said Linssen…. With this year’s selections including works that almost everyone will recognize—pieces such as Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth symphonies, Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ and Wagner’s ‘Flying Dutchman’ Overture —having a conductor who is willing to embrace broad-appeal music is a key element…. Conductor Donato Cabrera … is in his second season with the GBSO.… Linssen says Cabrera, who is also resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and was recently appointed music director of the California Symphony and of the New Hampshire Music Festival, is less formal and more progressive in terms of what connects music to people. [Says longtime timpanist Michael] Ross, ‘The way he runs rehearsals … our Thursday rehearsal is the quality of what the performances were years ago.’ ”
Posted October 11, 2013
