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The Daily Press
October 4, 2005
Symphony is home at last on the Peninsula
Saturday show is first at Ferguson
BY DAVID NICHOLSON
THE DAILY PRESS
The musicians of the Virginia Symphony would run out of fingers counting the number of halls they've played in on the Peninsula.
Church sanctuaries and high school auditoriums top the list, plus grander spaces such as Hampton University's Ogden Hall. Longtime players remember the chilly days when the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra's predecessor on this side of Hampton Roads, performed atop an ice rink in the Hampton Coliseum.
So if the opening fanfare at Saturday's night symphony concert sounds a bit brighter, the reason may be the surroundings. The symphony is moving into the newly completed concert hall in the Ferguson Center for the Arts. The 1,700-seat auditorium on the Christopher Newport University campus in Newport News opens a new chapter in the orchestra's desire to serve classical music lovers and potential new audience members on the Peninsula.
"I think it's going to have a major impact on this community," says business leader Erwin Drucker of Newport News. "The existence of the hall adds to the quality of life here, and people are excited."
Ticket sales may be one measure of that excitement. Symphony executive director Carla Johnson reports that less than 100 tickets remain for the opening night concert. The symphony has sold more than 650 subscriptions, with the rest going to single-ticket buyers and corporate sponsors.
Johnson and music director JoAnn Falletta see the Peninsula as a major component of the orchestra's drive to expand and reach new audiences. The symphony's smaller chamber orchestra of about 36 players now performs in Newport News and Williamsburg, but the full orchestra has had no indoor home until now. The concert hall's location will be attractive to those on the Peninsula who want to hear the full orchestra and don't want to drive to Chrysler Hall in Norfolk. And the anticipation of the hall's superb acoustics may even bring classical music lovers from South Hampton Roads anxious to hear the orchestra in a superior space.
"You get put off by Chrysler Hall," says supporter Ray Otte of Hampton. "The acoustics there are not that great."
To that end, symphony officials began more than a year ago to tap the lode of Peninsula music lovers by forming a group called the Peninsula Planners.
"They wanted to sell the hall and lay the groundwork for the opportunity that the hall will offer," says Joanne Roos of York County, who co-chaired the planning group. Mailings, informal meetings and word of mouth were used to get out the message.
The Peninsula roots of the Virginia Symphony stretch back to the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, which was founded by Cary McMurran in 1947. The orchestra began performing in the Hampton Coliseum when that facility opened in 1969. Otte, who was orchestra president in the early 1970s, remembers several high-profile guest artists, including Van Cliburn and Leontyne Price, came to town.
Cellist Jim Herbison of Hampton also remembers performing at the coliseum during hockey season.
"They would put up one of those temporary stages on top of the ice - it was awful," he says.
In 1979, the Peninsula symphony merged with the Norfolk Philharmonic and the Virginia Beach Pops orchestra to form the Virginia Orchestra Group. The orchestra played in the Warwick High School auditorium before moving to Ogden Hall in fall 1983 for a number of seasons.
In recent years, the orchestra has played in a variety of smaller venues, including the Hampton Roads Academy auditorium in Newport News and Lafayette High School in James City County and St. Bede's Catholic Church in Williamsburg. The symphony plans to continue a concert series at St. Bede's. The new Ferguson hall can accommodate the full orchestra, which will enable the orchestra to bring large-scale works to the Peninsula.
Falletta has called the orchestra's move to the Ferguson the most significant development in the orchestra's history since the merger. She and Johnson have scheduled a season of nine different programs there on Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons to accommodate different audience needs. The lineup of mostly popular works include Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos" and Handel's "Messiah."
The Ferguson Center also plans to use the symphony as its resident orchestra to accompany major guest artists. The orchestra played for the Irish Tenors last month and will be backing up Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli later this month.
There are also major educational opportunities, says Ernestine Dole, the symphony's director of education. She's planning school performances there for students in grades 3 to 5 during February, March and April. The Rotary Club of the Virginia Peninsula also has agreed to sponsor some area high school students who want to attend symphony performances. The symphony is hoping to line up other sponsors, Dole says.
For Roos and others, who have followed the planning and construction of the Ferguson Center, the Saturday concert is the culmination of eight years of waiting. They're planning to serve concertgoers champagne at intermission to mark the celebration.
"There has been a lot of support on the Peninsula," says Herbison. "I'm really excited by it. I can't wait to be over there."
Copyright (c) 2005, Daily Pres
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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