“Carlton Woods didn’t retire to play golf or tend his garden,” writes Donald Rosenberg in Wednesday’s (9/8) Plain Dealer (Cleveland). “He moved to Cleveland in 2007 with hopes of starting an orchestra. A dream has become reality. Woods, 69, is founding artistic director and conductor of the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra, which gives its debut concert Sunday at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland. The cooperative organization has set out to be a flexible entity that presents chamber concerts featuring five to eight players and larger events, such as Sunday’s performance, with more than 30. Woods envisions three subscription concerts during the first season at a cost of $50,000. … As part of outreach activities, Blue Water has entered into a partnership with St. Ignatius, which hired orchestra violist Alexandra Vago to teach high school students one day a week. … Ask the genial Woods about creating an orchestra in hard economic times, and he hardly lifts an eyebrow. ‘If you wait for all the stars to align properly, you’ll probably not start anything,’ the Iowa native said in a recent interview.”
Posted September 13, 2010
