{"id":234,"date":"2013-01-30T20:56:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/?page_id=234"},"modified":"2013-03-28T14:36:55","modified_gmt":"2013-03-28T14:36:55","slug":"wso-beyond-bricks-mortar","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/?page_id=234","title":{"rendered":"WSO Beyond Bricks & Mortar"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cThis is an orchestra with deep roots in the community \u2026 Windsor\u2019s strength \u2026 is that in addition to the usual menu of classics and pops, \u2026 it takes the program to the people \u2026.\u201d<\/em> (John Morris Russell, Globe and Mail, <\/i>November 28, 2001).\u00a0<\/span><\/pre>\n
Venues<\/b><\/p>\n
While Maestro Holli worked to develop the Orchestra itself, and find it a permanent home, his successors also worked to bring the orchestral experience to various venues in Windsor and Essex County for the benefit of those who may not be able to attend concerts in downtown Windsor.<\/p>\n
\"WSO<\/a>Maestro Gati took orchestra members to play in factories, and to the newly-built popular innovation in shopping, the Devonshire Mall.\u00a0\u00a0 In the 1982-83 season, a series of \u201cMusic at the Manor\u201d concerts with members of the orchestra who also performed as part of the \u201cEssex Winds, Cartier String Quartet and Border City Brass Quartet going back to Windsor\u2019s artistic roots at Willistead Manor.<\/p>\n
In Windsor, some unique venues have included MacKenzie Hall (a former courthouse and jail) for the Largely Canadian series, for example, and when an organ is needed for some music, at the Art Gallery of Windsor, at All Saints\u2019 Church downtown, St. John the Baptist in Amherstburg, St. Anne\u2019s in Tecumseh, Holy Rosary Church and Leamington United Mennonite Church.\u00a0 The orchestra has reached as far as Chatham at the Mary Webb Centre.\u00a0 Partnerships with the WSO and communities have been forged, including, in Amherstburg, where the Christmas concert tradition has continued through the years, \u201cWhen the first notes of the music came alive we heard the Nutcracker and all the favourites we hope to hear at Christmas.\u201d (Patti Helmer, Amherstburg Performing Arts: Celebrating a Perfect Ten: 1981 \u2013 1991<\/i>, 1991.)<\/p>\n
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The WSO continues to perform outside of regular concert halls for various events, including locations of the Windsor Public Library, the Nikola Budimir branch and Place Concorde for Peanut Butter n\u2019 Jam concerts, Phog Lounge for the Canadian Music Festival.<\/p>\n
Outdoor concerts also prove popular, attracting even more appreciative listeners with riverside concerts in Amherstburg and Windsor\u2019s Sculpture Gardens.\u00a0\u00a0 In 2012, the WSO took part in a commemoration of the War of 1812 at Festival Plaza near Dieppe Park, \u201chundreds flocked to Festival Plaza and enjoyed a full concert that included Holst’s Mars, Bringer of War<\/i>, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture<\/i> and much more.\u201d The National Ballet of Canada Conductor Dave Briskin was guest conductor, with sopranos Erin Armstrong and Jackie Robataille, mezzo-soprano\u00a0Kylee Phillips, and baritone Adam Iannetta. Windsor\u2019s first Poet Laureate, Marty Gervais, read a poem based on local history\u00a0with the orchestra providing musical accompaniment, and, for the grand finale,\u00a0members of the Windsor Youth Symphony played percussion, and even the audience took part by being prompted to pop red balloons in place of cannon fire.<\/p>\n
Community\/ Outreach<\/b><\/p>\n
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra is recognized throughout Canada and North America for its outreach and contribution to communities.\u00a0 Not only does the quality of the WSO reflect well on the cultural life of the community, encouraging investment to this region, but its community concerts are, \u201c\u2019absolutely world-beating,\u201d according to Katherine Carleton, executive director of Orchestras Canada, \u201cthis is an extraordinarily engaged orchestra. The Windsor symphony really does set the standard for Canadian orchestras.\u201d (Windsor Star<\/i>, March 11, 2011).<\/p>\n
The WSO has also supported other cultural organizations such as a \u201cWillistead Restoration Concert \u2013 Pops in the Park.\u201d\u00a0 Smaller groups have been formed from the core orchestra to perform at charitable events and provide a little extra income for the musicians, such as the Border City Brass Quintet, who performed for Amherstburg Performing Arts in 1982, and the Cartier String Quartet at Willistead Manor (1981).<\/p>\n
Click on the image<\/strong> below to view part of\u00a0the WSO at Leamington United Mennonite Church\u00a0in\u00a0360 degree image.\u00a0\u00a0Click and drag\u00a0your mouse\u00a0on the\u00a0image to\u00a0view the room.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\"WSO<\/a><\/p>\n
The WSO has connected with many faith communities through the years.\u00a0\u00a0 Matti Holli\u2019s ties to sacred music brought members of the WSO to perform a concert at a Lutheran convention at Ford Auditorium in Detroit, MI.\u00a0 Musicians and conductors took part in the Christian Culture series that ran for decades in the community with concerts at Assumption Chapel, and regular holiday concerts with the Helen Law Singers and the Leamington Choral Society at the Mennonite Church there in the 1970s.\u00a0 The orchestra has been supported in turn by members of all faiths in the community.<\/p>\n
The WSO has also celebrated and supported sports in the community with a \u201cWindsor Salutes Hockey Night in Canada\u201d programme with guest artist John Allan Cameron in 1981.\u00a0 In 2008, conductor John Morris Russell, created a \u201cSummon the Heroes!\u201d concert as part of the WSO\u2019s Diamond Anniversary Pops series and as a prelude to the Beijing Olympics, featuring Windsor boxer Mary Spencer shadow-boxing to the theme from the movie, \u201cRocky.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reaching out to the music community of course is a priority for the WSO.\u00a0 In 1972, the WSO hosted the Ontario Federation of Symphony Orchestras Annual Conference in Windsor with a gala concert.\u00a0 The WSO has supported the \u201cLargely Canadian Series\u201d which highlights Canadian chamber music with outreach concerts at the Art Gallery of Windsor and at All Saints\u2019 Anglican Church, downtown Windsor. Ultimately, the Windsor Symphony Orchestra offers a larger contribution to the Windsor Essex communities by augmenting our quality of life with culture, education and vitality.<\/p>\n
Technology<\/b><\/p>\n
The advantage of a symphony orchestra is that the fundamental tools of the trade are timeless, and in a good acoustical environment, need no augmentation for a wonderful musical experience.\u00a0 The Windsor Symphony Orchestra, however, has been open to various technologies and breakthroughs in music and visual production.<\/p>\n
One of the earliest concerts in 1938 featured cutting-edge technology for the time \u2013 an electric organ!\u00a0 Professor Charles Wuerth contributed to the April 23rd<\/sup> programme with selections on the organ on a packed programme featuring soloists, full orchestra pieces, including the \u201cWilliam Tell Overture,\u201d selections from The Student Prince<\/i>, Faust<\/i>, The Blue Danube<\/i>, \u201cPomp and Circumstance\u201d and more (Windsor Daily Star<\/i>, April 23, 1938).<\/p>\n
Later WSO performances also have taken advantage of newly available technology.\u00a0 In the 2005 – 2006, season, composer Brent Lee incorporated electronic music and recordings in his compositions and adapted electronica music for the WSO.\u00a0 He also incorporates computer programs such as GarageBand<\/i> or Logic Pro<\/i> in his composition technique. (Windsor Star<\/i>, February 9, 2006.)\u00a0 This music was later adapted to be played at the Art Gallery of Windsor.\u00a0 Lee has also combined electronic media and traditional music as part of the 2010 Windsor Canadian Music Festival, \u201cMusic and Media\u201d programme with events held in non-traditional (for the WSO) venues such as Phog, and Milk Coffee Bar in downtown Windsor.<\/p>\n
Technology can also be incorporated into a nostalgically-themed programme. In 2007, the WSO staged a screening of Charlie Chaplin\u2019s 1917 classic film, The Immigrant<\/i> at the Capitol Theatre.\u00a0 In this performance, then Director of Operations Shannon Whidden worked with Windsor\u2019s Suede Productionsin order to program a time-code with a beta-tape transcription DVD, and Power-Point file on a monitor for Maestro Russell to be able to conduct the score in synchronization with the screen action.\u00a0 Even the screen was a special type, Cyclorama on loan from the Windsor Light Musical Theatre (Windsor Star, <\/i>April 12, 2007).<\/p>\n
The WSO is on the forefront of making use of the social media networking site, YouTube, during its search for a new conductor and artistic director.\u00a0 The 2011-12 conductor candidate search committee asked candidates to upload a sample of their conducting skills on YouTube.\u00a0 This is in place of the practice of candidates having to send in videotapes or DVDs of their performing skills.\u00a0 \u201c\u2019Maybe we are doing a little pioneering,\u2019\u201d the WSO\u2019s executive director (now Capitol Theatre Managing Director) Jeth Mill was quoted at the time, \u201c\u2019It is an entirely different world than 11 years ago when the symphony searched for the last conductor.\u201d (Windsor Star<\/i>, February 17, 2012.)<\/p>\n
The windsorsymphony.com<\/a> website, is a key communications tool for the WSO, as are social media sites.\u00a0 The website launched online ticket sales in 2002 and concert information is available online for the convenience of patrons, helping to connect us all to the music.<\/p>\n
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Preservation<\/b><\/p>\n
Beth Hebert is the Windsor Symphony Orchestra\u2019s long-term librarian and her role is two-fold; to ensure that all musicians taking part in a concert have the music they need in time for rehearsals, and to make sure that all of the sheet music and concert recordings are kept safe.<\/p>\n
Sheet music is kept in acid-free boxes in the WSO library and carefully catalogued for easy access.\u00a0 Photocopies of sheet music are only allowed by copyright to be used at rehearsals, not for performances.<\/p>\n
Behind the scenes, every WSO concert is recorded for the WSO library, so that conductors can check earlier performances, musicians can use them for auditions, or the organization can use them for grant applications.\u00a0 These recordings began on reel-to-reel tape, progressed to cassette tapes, and now compact disks (CD) and digital files.\u00a0 These recordings are not available to the public for copyright reasons.\u00a0 See our Recordings chapter for commercial recordings.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is an orchestra with deep roots in the community \u2026 Windsor\u2019s strength \u2026 is that in addition to the usual menu of classics and pops, \u2026 it takes the program to the people \u2026.\u201d (John Morris Russell, Globe and Mail, November 28, 2001).\u00a0 Venues While Maestro Holli worked to develop the Orchestra itself, and find it a permanent home, Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/234\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windsorpubliclibrary.com\/engine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}