“No matter who programs each Spokane Symphony season, the focus is always on the performers and the patrons,” writes Azaria Podplesky in Sunday’s (3/31) Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA). “With music director Eckart Preu leaving this spring, the responsibility of programming the 2019-20 season fell largely to executive director Jeff vom Saal. General manager Daniel Cotter (clarinet and E-flat clarinet) and director of artistic administration and personnel manager Bethany Schoeff also played a big part…. Vom Saal, Cotter and Schoeff, using input from audiences, have … programmed [the new series] Coffee and Classics, during which patrons can sit in on rehearsal, and the Movies and Music Series.… ‘50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing’ [will feature] the Spokane Symphony Chorale and ‘Science and Symphony’ films from [astronomer] José Francisco Salgado” with thematically related music from Britten, Debussy, Berlioz, Holst, and John Estacio’s “Solaris.” Also planned are a concert marking Beethoven’s 250th birthday, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) with the Spokane Symphony Chorale, and a pops performance with ska/funk band Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, that group’s first performance with an orchestra. The current season features five music director candidates, one of whom will become music director next season.
Posted April 2, 2019
