WSO rings in 75th season with a flourish

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This article was published 21/09/2022 (1423 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG

To Daniel Raiskin, music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra is an optimistic metaphor.

“It’s a fantastic example how many different things can really work in harmony. If you took a double bass and a piccolo, you couldn’t help but see the differences, and yet these two instruments play together in the greatest harmony and enjoy each other’s company,” he said. “In a diverse community such as ours, music is a wonderful example of how we can unite and connect people of all languages, races, backgrounds, gender or sexual orientation — it doesn’t matter. Music is for everyone.”

After cancelled seasons and one last year full of stops and starts and reduced capacities, Raiskin is looking forward to greater normalcy in 2022-23, and the restoration of the magic of the symphony, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary and kicked off the season with an opening concert featuring Brandon-born-and-raised violin star James Ehnes on Sept. 17.

“You go to a concert hall and listen to a symphony, and a thousand pairs of ears are listening to the same thing, but everyone hears it differently,” he said. “And from this magic of 1,000 people, more or less, listening to the same piece of music coming at them from the stage, a special energy arises in the auditorium, in the concert hall, in the audience, that is only possible when it’s a communal experience.”

Raiskin said it is like the feeling people may get attending a particularly beautiful religious service, regardless if they are religious or not.

For the upcoming season, he touted a lineup of both symphonies and less classical shows, with a range including the classical works of great composers such as Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky to performances with Crash Test Dummies (on Sept. 23 and 24) and magician Michael Grandinetti.

“I’m very excited,” said Angela Birdsell, WSO executive director, of the upcoming season. “We’ve got such a variety of artists coming in, and such high-calibre artists coming.”

Birdsell said there’s something special about seeing symphonic music live.

“It’s such a difficult concept to describe in words. You won’t really know about it until you experience it, but it’s very visceral. There’s almost a physicality to hearing and seeing the music live,” she said.

During its 75 years in Winnipeg, the WSO has meant more to the city than just moving its audiences atop ocean swells of violins and mountainous baritones — it also serves as a centre for Winnipeg’s arts culture, Birdsell said.

First violin and now 35-year concert master, Gwen Hoebig, elaborated: “The musicians of the orchestra are the foundation of all the classical music activities in the city. Most of us teach. We are looking to the next generation. We’re helping grow the next generation, educate the next generation… that’s a really important part of it.”

The orchestra has helped form several community groups, such as the Winnipeg Youth Orchestras, and has formed bonds with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and other local arts centres to promote arts culture in Winnipeg, both Birdsell and Hoebig said.

The orchestra will be holding a free community concert on Sat., Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Centennial Concert Hall. For complete information on upcoming shows, visit wso.ca