The Massachusetts-based Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Tianhui Ng, in a pre-pandemic photo.
“The Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra continues its 83rd season on … Nov. 27 … with a virtual concert [that includes] includes Rossini’s … Barber of Seville Overture, contemporary composer Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance, and Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony in C Major,’ ” writes Clifton Noble Jr. in Monday’s (11/22) Republican (Springfield, MA). “The concert … will be made available … via stream on a smartTV or other internet-connected device, or via Zoom for a community watch party and post-concert talkback…. The PVSO has risen with alacrity to the challenges of the COVID pandemic, [remaining] fiercely committed to keeping the music playing. ‘I recall comments by the president of the League of American Orchestras earlier in the pandemic,’ [Music Director Tianhui] Ng said, … ‘that we went to bed one day and woke up the next, finding that we were all helming media organizations and not just musical organizations…. We planned for every one of our concerts this season to be flexible in format so we can jump right back into the concert halls once conditions are right.’ … In 2014, Maestro Ng gave the east coast premiere of [Mary] Watkins’ opera Dark River with the Mt. Holyoke College Orchestra.”
