It’s a privilege and honour to get invited back every year to Stratford Symphony Orchestra.
So says William Rowson as he enters his 10th season as music director.
The orchestra starts a new season Sept. 26 and Rowson says the musical memories are dear to his heart.
“We’ve shared the stage with fantastic soloists in the last ten years, even Paul Gross the actor shared the stage with us once, all the great Celtic shows we’ve done with the bands and have been involved in creating the orchestral shows we were able to present.
“We started doing a New Years concert about halfway through my time here on New Years Day, and it’s a little more relaxed for the orchestra, it’s a shorter program and it’s all just bubbly fun, New Years music.”
Orchestra executive director A.J. Ashley said Rowson has built something special in his tenure.
“It’s amazing to see the community support behind the symphony itself and how many people want this to continue on. We’re at season 22 now, how do we keep it going 20, 30 plus years down the road so we can continue making music together.”
The symphony will present 11 concerts through to next May.
These include Enchanted Landscapes: Weber, Reinecke & Schumann, Beethoven’s Sixth, The Messiah with Stratford Concert Choir, Winter Recital with the Stratford Symphony Youth Orchestra, New Year’s Celebration, A Celtic Celebration with the Allison Lupton Band, Venezuelan songs from Seré Libre, Hearing Pictures at an Exhibition, Dance! with the Stratford Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Pictures at an Exhibition.
Ashley described the season as a celebration of music.
“It’s highlighting the talent within the orchestra, something that we wanted to do along with celebrating the milestone Bill is going through with the organization this year and finding new, exciting repertoire that we’re able to bring to the community.”
The last concert of the season (Songs of Stratford) is a special one for Rowson.
“I’ve programmed one of my favourite pieces of music ever written which is a symphony by Dvorak, his seventh symphony in D minor, and the committee was awarded a grant to commission me to write an original piece of music which will also be on that program.”
Rowson said the piece will have an original theme, with 13 sections of music that each feature a different part of the orchestra before they all come together.
Tickets for the shows can be found at the SSO website.
