“The more that Rossen Milanov said, the better Emma Schlosser felt,” writes Ken Gordon in Sunday’s (3/12) Columbus Dispatch (Ohio). “On a recent Wednesday night, Schlosser sat nervously onstage at the Ohio Theatre, a participant in the Columbus Symphony’s annual Side by Side program, in which the symphony invites 50 amateur musicians to join its members for a rehearsal. Schlosser, 28, hadn’t played her bassoon seriously since … 2011…. Promptly at 7 p.m., Milanov, the orchestra music director, stepped on the podium… ‘It’s all about bringing the music alive,’ he said…. The words put Schlosser at ease…. Side by Side was introduced in 2014.… To participate, an amateur must be at least 25 years old, able to read music and proficient on an instrument used in the orchestra. The accepted musicians pay $100 to participate and are paired with an orchestra member…. [Director of Education Jeani] Stahler said that each year, about 65 people apply…. The program represents the type of outreach that Milanov has been pushing since he was hired in September 2014.… Emmeline Wharton … has participated all four years. She works in the information-technology business and plays violin in the Southeastern Ohio Symphony Orchestra. ‘It’s like a huge private lesson,’ said Wharton.”
Posted March 14, 2017
