Symphony plans season of ‘Music and Magic’
The Rome Symphony Orchestra’s new season will begin in October.
After financial struggles and a shakeup in administration, The Rome Symphony Orchestra has a new season of “Music and Magic” planned for Rome and area audiences beginning in October.
The symphony has seen a drop in attendance over the past few years. And to drum up more community support, Executive Director Carey Smith is working to rebrand the RSO to show the collaborative work with other artists, interactive production performances, and theater accompaniment to ramp up the energy.
Smith, who took over as executive director in January, said the orchestra has been saved several times by last minute donations from the community.
Beginning this fall, the RSO will begin its 20172018 season not with music, but with magic. Illusionist Landon Swank (who finished in the top 10 on America’s Got Talent) will perform for local audiences. His illusions will be accompanied by the symphony.
“The goal is to reach out and cast a wider net to bring in people from the tri-county region by creating a more varied and entertaining concert series,” Smith said.
He hopes that this new look will give the RSO the push it needs to make it to its 100th season. This will be its 96th. Smith emphasized that the RSO is a classical symphony first and foremost and that will not change, however the orchestra will be changing its performance style to something that the whole family can enjoy.
“Our goal is to increase audience goal by 25 percent and rebuild lost endowment,” Smith said, “Key components of what will help us move forward, broaden the age range, young people up until 40s.”
One of the symphony’s plans for the upcoming season is to partner with the Rome Shakespeare Festival in a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” conducted by Dr. Paul Neal of Berry College.
The RSO was the first symphony orchestra to be founded in the state of Georgia in 1922 and has been on the verge of collapse since 2014. Smith said that in the past 20-years the orchestra and symphony communities have suffered, leading many such organizations to go under. He said exhaustion and lack of creative thinking were the causes of the decline, and he undertook a massive research outreach to see how other orchestras have survived.
According to Smith, each performance by the RSO will link to the next, all the while keeping with the theme “Music and Magic.” The orchestra will be brining in guest conductors and artists from Atlanta and the Northwest Georgia area including Peach State Opera conductor Dr. Evelyn Hughes, and Maestro Rolando Salazar of the Atlanta Opera.
The symphony is also making plans to partner with actors of the Shakespeare Festival as well as the Shorter and Berry choirs to put on a performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” conducted by Dr. Paul Neal of Berry College.
The biggest effort, Smith said, was in asking the Rome community for help. In the past three years the symphony has lost all of its outreach support, which it hopes to regain by starting an education outreach program in 2018 which would include representatives from every school in the Rome area, including both public and private.
Smith hopes to make the RSO more accessible to families and those interested in becoming career musicians. He encouraged those interested in volunteering with show set-up, ticket taking, or even helping put together a Christmas float, to contact the symphony for more information.
Email csmith@romesymphony.org or visit online at www.romesymphony.org for more information about the 2017-2018 season and how to volunteer or donate.