MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS
Symphony unveils new season
The Windsor Symphony Orchestra aims to break barriers with the theme “Music Beyond Borders” for its 72nd season kicking off in September.
“The basic idea is this — that music really speaks and takes us beyond language barriers, beyond cultural barriers and is at the core of who we are — we’re always breaking down these borders,” said WSO artistic director Robert Franz. The WSO gave reporters a sneak peek Thursday of the upcoming season at the Capitol Theatre. “Music Beyond Borders” will provide concertgoers with an experience all season inspired by regions around the world and across eras. Among a variety of concerts, music lovers will hear a symphony that celebrates the life of a Scottish bagpiper during WWI and a piano concert that features music by classic composers Liszt and Chopin, with poems centred on life in the Mediterranean.
“Next season we’re going to be bringing in artists and composers that really represent different walks of life, different ways of life — even from different parts of the world,” Franz said.
Each year the WSO tries to encompass a wide range of repertoire to connect with different parts of the community.
“It’s really important to the musicians and I that we inspire ourselves with music from different cultures, different time periods and really let those different kinds of music feed each other and help develop each other,” he said. The WSO has plenty of programs set for the 2019-2020 season, including continuing its Classics in the County series, its Pops series which will cover great Broadway choruses, and a new local “W.E. Got Talent” competition for any and all performers across the region.
The orchestra also announced its next opera will be the classic Madame Butterfly — the tragic love story of a Japanese geisha and an American naval officer.
“It invokes so much emotion and it’s just all over the board how much it rings and evokes within the audience and the performers,” WSO violinist Konstantin Popovic said.
Nearly 80 singers from across the province auditioned to bring Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera to Windsor.
Franz said the opportunity to conduct such a monumental piece is high on the list for any conductor.
“I have done Madame Butterfly before but every time I pick it up it’s a challenge,” Franz said.
“It is two and a half hours of some of the most complicated, interesting, romantic music you could imagine.”
Franz said he is always looking to step outside his comfort zone — even with productions he has experience with.
“That’s really what music is about is finding the new, finding the interesting, finding something you didn’t know before,” he said. Along with the program reveal, the WSO announced a renewed six-year contract for Franz who has led the orchestra since 2013. “Coming to Windsor and being part of the community and the Windsor Orchestra family has been a real thrill for me,” he said. “So I’m totally honoured and completely gobsmacked to have another
Next season we’re going to be bringing in artists and composers that really represent different walks of life.
six years.”
Originally from Kingston, N.Y., Franz loves Windsor’s open-mindedness to classical music and the variety of people who make up the area.
“There are so many pockets of interesting and vibrant people throughout the community and it’s been so much fun tapping into those and getting to know those people in different areas,” he said.