In Wednesday’s (5/2) Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis recalls Monday night “sitting onstage at the $240-million Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, surrounded by members of the Pacific Symphony, my trusty clarinet in my lap, the score to Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ballet music laid out before me and music director Carl St.Clair wielding his baton in front of us. … Last month, a Pacific Symphony email about a program called ‘OC Can You Play With Us?’ hit my inbox. … I signed on, then reached out to St.Clair to ask about the orchestra’s reasons for bravely opening its ranks, if only for a night, to the likes of me. ‘For us, it’s a chance in a very positive way to have an active collaboration with many people who are regular members of our audience, to have a chance to make music with them, not just play for them,’ he said. … Response last year when the orchestra initiated the program was so strong that this year it was expanded to four groups playing over two nights to accommodate twice as many participants: nearly 150 this year—me included—bowing and blowing side by side with 55 orchestra regulars. … The full program consisted of weeks of individual practice by the amateurs, one volunteer sectional rehearsal two weeks ago and about an hour onstage Monday and Tuesday night.”
Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times
Posted May 2, 2012
