Olympia Symphony Orchestra wraps up its all-virtual season on Sunday
The Olympia Symphony Orchestra wraps up its season Sunday with “Together,” a concert that exemplifies the perks of the online performances just as the need for those performances seems to be coming to an end.
“Together” — which includes pieces by Bach, Debussy and a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students in Tumwater — was filmed partly at Seattle’s legendary Benaroya Hall and partly at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra’s home venue.
It wraps up with “OSO Smiles,” a virtual collaboration among five pianists in three countries. And these aren’t just any pianists: They’re the four finalists in competition to become the orchestra’s next music director, plus orchestra executive director Jennifer Hermann.
The finalists — Alexandra Arrieche, a native of Brazil who lives in Nevada; Adam Johnson of Montreal, Canada; Kelly Kuo of Cincinnati and Zoe Zeniodi of Greece — were announced in August 2020 and will each conduct a concert in the 2021-2022 season, to be announced at Sunday’s concert.
The quartet cooked up the idea to work together on a piece and asked Hermann to join them for “OSO Smiles,” a variation on Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile” arranged by Laurel Gonzalo, a member of the orchestra’s board.
The song, in case the words haven’t yet leapt to your mind, goes “Smile, though your heart is breaking.”
“We wanted to play something that kind of captured the sentiment of this year and something that would be fun and heartwarming,” Hermann told the Olympian. “One of the finalists suggested ‘Smile.’ That’s how we got through this year.
“There were lots of heart-breaking things happening around us, lots of disappointment, lots of sadness,” she added. And the way we got through it was by sticking together, leaning on each other and smiling.”
Though “OSO Smiles” doesn’t debut till Sunday, Hermann admitted she’s been watching it over and over. “It’s just so cute,” she said. “There’s even a dog in it.”
Another highlight of the concert will be “Variations on Pastures of Plenty,” inspired by the Woody Guthrie piece and filmed with 18 musicians on stage at Benaroya Hall. The recording at Benaroya — made possible by the Seattle Symphony’s Community Stages Fund, underwritten by the Tagney Jones Family Fund at Seattle Foundation — was a long time in coming.
The orchestra had planned to record the piece, created by Brad Balliett and students at Tumwater Hill and Peter G. Schmidt elementary schools, at Benaroya in December, but that fell apart when Gov. Jay Inslee tightened restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19.
So the piece was instead recorded by individual musicians working at home and put together into a collaboration video (https://youtu.be/znxoGfsCLc0), included in virtual holiday concerts by the orchestra and Emerald City Music, which collaborated with the orchestra on the collaboration between teaching artist Balliett and the students.
Though the piece had debuted digitally, the orchestra still wanted to record it at Benaroya, particularly because the students were so excited that their piece would be played on a world-famous stage. The orchestra’s musicians rode to Seattle in April, and some of them even made it into the hall, but at the last moment, the session had to be called off again due to concerns about the virus.
“It was heartbreaking for the kids and also for ourselves,” said Hermann, who was one of the musicians slated to play the piece. “We were so looking forward to playing with each other, and it was so within reach.”
At that point, to make a third attempt at recording possible, she had to reach out to the community for donations, since the orchestra had already paid the musicians for the virtual recording in December and for the trip to Seattle in April.
“The beautiful part of the story is that when I asked the community for help, the support came in an overwhelming wave,” Hermann said.
The recording session, which included not only “Variations” but also several chamber pieces that will be on Sunday’s program, finally happened in May.
Sunday’s concert will alternate between pieces filmed at Benaroya, where the orchestra also benefited from the use of high-end video and sound equipment, and collaborations with Ballet Northwest filmed in April at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.
The dance pieces, filmed after Ballet Northwest recorded its filmed version of “Sleeping Beauty,” included both classical numbers and contemporary works, including “At the Purchaser’s Option,” by singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens.
“The concert is called ‘Together’ because we could not have done any of what we did this past year without the people around us,” Hermann said. “We leaned on partnerships and the community and other organizations to do these things.”
‘Together’
What: The Olympia Symphony Orchestra is wrapping up its all-virtual season with an online concert filmed at both The Washington Center for the Performing Arts and Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
When: Debuting online at 6 p.m. Sunday, June 27, and available for viewing thereafter
Tickets: Free, with donations appreciated
More information: https://www.olympiasymphony.org/together
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 5:45 AM.