In Friday’s (5/10) Charlotte Observer (North Carolina), Lawrence Toppman writes, “When David Hagy was an eighth-grader in Indianapolis, a piano followed him home from school. A classmate’s family wanted an old upright out of their basement badly enough to pay for its relocation. So Hagy had a great idea: He’d slip it into his bedroom before anyone noticed, then ask his parents if he could keep it. … They made him get rid of it, but they didn’t ignore the sign: Little David got a piano for his 13th Christmas and set off on the musical journey that has lasted nearly half a century—most of it as a beloved music director of the [Salisbury-Rowan] Symphony Orchestra. He’ll lead that orchestra Saturday in a ‘Double Your Fun’ concert devoted to pairs and trios. That gig also celebrates his 25 years as Salisbury’s maestro. … He has already introduced works as difficult as Mahler’s Second Symphony and as rare as Debussy’s Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra, strengthened mainstage concerts at Livingstone College, set up an equitable pay scale for all musicians and gently replaced weak musical links among the 60 to 70 regular performers. He has managed this on a budget of about $300,000, roughly 3 percent of the Charlotte Symphony’s total.”
Posted May 13, 2013
