The Score | Orchestral Voices

Orchestras are creating online content that ventures far beyond concerts. Followings a series of “Conductor’s Corner” posts in which he wrote about repertoire and how music can intersect with today’s most pressing issues, Durham Symphony Orchestra Music Director William Henry Curry recently posted his first video blog, speaking directly to viewers while sharing his artistic insights and personal perspectives. In the Akron Symphony Orchestra’s Unorchestrated podcast, Music Director Christopher Wilkins and Director of Marketing Thomas Moore speak with ASO musicians, guest artists, and music-industry newsmakers. Unorchestrated launched with a multi-part discussion featuring Akron-born poet Rita Dove, with episodes about Dove’s poetry collection Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play, which explores the relationship between Beethoven and the Black violinist George Bridgetower—for whom Beethoven composed his “Kreutzer” Sonata. Florida’s Sarasota Orchestra launched its online “Books of Note” program, a conversation-and-readings series that explores two collections of literature, one curated by Artistic Advisor Jeffrey Kahane and the other selected by Sarasota Orchestra musicians. In “Classical Music in America,” Kahane discusses books ranging from Jonathan Rosenberg’s Dangerous Melodies to Anita Lasker-Wallfisch’s Inherit the Truth. The Sarasota Orchestra musicians’ series centers on books that have transformed their lives; the first event featured Sarasota Orchestra violinist Mia Laity in a discussion of Haruki Murakami’s Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa.