In Thursday’s (8/5) Washington Post, Anne Midgette writes, “The National Symphony Orchestra’s first American Residency of the Christoph Eschenbach era will be conducted by—Hugh Wolff. The orchestra announced Wednesday that its 21st residency, in February 2011, will take it to Kentucky. … the nine-day trip around the state will involve at least two orchestra concerts, plus a wide array of chamber concerts and outreach events. It’s a huge commitment for all the musicians involved, and with Eschenbach’s busy, planned-far-in-advance schedule, too much of one for him. … In Wolff, though, a former associate conductor of the NSO under Mstislav Rostropovich who has since gone on to a very respectable career, the NSO players have a fine partner whom they also happen to like. … Planning these residencies is a formidable logistical task. Not every community that would like to host an NSO concert has a hall big enough to hold 100 musicians onstage. After the available halls have been identified and the orchestra’s main route planned, local coordinators solicit proposals from smaller venues that would like to interact with the musicians: anything from elementary schools to, in Arkansas in 2009, a local comedy improv troupe.”
Photo by Frank Hülsbröhmer
August 5, 2010
