“The Middletown Symphony Orchestra performed its final concert on Sunday after 75 years of operation, but for some the farewell will be short-lived,” writes Wayne Baker in Tuesday’s (5/9) Journal-News (Dayton, Ohio). “Several members of the Middletown organization have banded together to create the Southwest Ohio Philharmonic (SWOP). The symphony’s board decided last year that the 2016-17 concert season would be the final one for the organization.… The orchestra’s last performance was 75 years to the day when Valda Wilkerson took the baton as the orchestra’s conductor on May 7, 1942.… But the baton was immediately passed to the SWOP group, as symphony members Mike Shaffer, Joanne Shaffer and Renate Thomas stepped up to start the new orchestra. ‘A nine-member executive board was formed this past year and began meeting in September,’ Shaffer said, … ‘and in December the Philharmonic was founded.’ [Middletown Music Director Carmen] DeLeone, who celebrated 35 years with the symphony on Sunday, will serve as SWOP’s first music advisor and will help prepare the orchestra for its first scheduled performance [on] Labor Day.… Shaffer said the choice of name for the new orchestra reflects the desire to reach throughout the southwest Ohio region.”
Posted May 10, 2017
