George Ogata and the Reading Symphony Orchestra: The Inaugural Concert

Reading, MA – George Ogata will lead the Reading Symphony Orchestra at their concert on Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 3:30 P.M. This concert will be held at the William E. Endslow Performing Arts Center at Reading Memorial High School (62 Oakdale Rd., Reading). The program will include Roman Carnival Overture by Bizet, Dvorak’s Violin Concerto with soloist Haldan Martinson from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony #5 in E minor.

Trial by Fire….and Snow

While this concert has been christened The Inaugural Concert of George Ogata, the Maestro actually made his first appearance with the RSO back in November, in a performance that resembled the auspicious beginnings of many great conductors. Although slated to lead the orchestra in the Hebrides Overture to begin the concert, having only been appointed as the new music director and conductor several weeks earlier, Mr. Ogata was called upon with just a few days notice to conduct the entire program because the Conductor Emeritus had become ill. His first interaction with the orchestra to rehearse all of the pieces on the program took place at the dress rehearsal the day before the concert. While this was not an ideal situation, it caused the formation of a tremendously strong bond between the musicians and their new leader, and audience members witnessed one of the most electrifying and critically acclaimed RSO concerts in recent memory. This singular event certainly should have been enough to test the mettle of any new music director, but Mother Nature apparently had other plans.

January found the RSO musicians, including twenty new members, and their Music Director reconvening to once again make extraordinary music. The Inaugural Concert program would not be a simple one and would require the full allotment of rehearsals for the musicians to be at their peak. No one could have predicted that there would be a five week gap in the RSO rehearsal schedule between mid-January and late February due to three consecutive snow cancellations and public school vacation. When the orchestra met again, they unanimously agreed to extend their rehearsal time by one hour each week to make up for the truly lost time to prepare this magnificent performance for their audience. Of his experience working with the musicians George Ogata adds “In the past few months, the level of collaboration and spiritual bonding with the members of the Reading Symphony Orchestra has been extraordinary and revelatory. There is a new galvanization, a new esprit de corps, and a new momentum that has propelled this group of artists forward.”

Guest Soloist Haldan Martinson

Principal Second Violin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Haldan Martinson will join the RSO in Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A minor. Mr. Martinson is a graduate of Yale College and holds a Master of Music Degree from New England Conservatory. He made his solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1990 and his national television debut on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. The Dvorak Violin Concerto is one of the composer’s most widely performed works and is considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the genre in a post-Beethoven era. Like many of Dvorak’s works, the Czech melodies, a nod to this composer’s fervent nationalism, intertwine with the formal structure of a complex Romantic concerto. The orchestra will follow this concerto with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 in E minor which showpieces the composer’s brilliant orchestration techniques while also offering insight into the tortured psyche of the artist.

Get Your Tickets

Tickets for this concert are available at the door. Adult tickets are $15, Senior/Student tickets are $10, and children, 12 and under, are free. The Reading Symphony Orchestra is the grateful recipient of a grant from the Reading Cultural Council. This grant was requested by the RSO to sponsor The Inaugural Concert of George Ogata to both welcome him to the Greater Reading community as well as increase our community outreach to welcome new listeners. This program is supported in part from a grant from the Reading Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. We invite you to visit our website www.readingsymphonyorchestra.org, friend us on Facebook (The Reading Symphony Orchestra), or follow us on Twitter @Reading Symphony.