Six decades of musical fine-tuning
The South Arkansas Symphony played its first concert in 1957, and has been going strong ever since. This season started with “Beauty and the Beast” Sept. 9. The music was composed and directed by Kermit Poling, the symphony’s music director for 30 years. The Arkansas Festival Ballet, directed by Rebecca Stalcup, joined in this season’s opening performance.
On April 24 the symphony, in coordination with South Arkansas Arts Center, will present the opera “Hansel and Gretel.” It was first staged in 1893, and since then has been performed around the world.
These two additions are significant, moving the symphony a notch higher in performance quality.
When I was young, my mother insisted we attend what was called Community Concerts in El Dorado. The programs were varied, and instilled in me a love of classical music. That led me to attend symphony concerts throughout Europe and the United States. My car radio is set on a classics station.
Vertis and I have supported the South Arkansas Symphony for years, and when living overseas we had the opportunity to attend concerts in many European cities, where such performances are major events and sometimes open-air productions.
Before we moved back to El Dorado, we were supporters of the Corpus Christi (Texas) Symphony Orchestra, where opening night was a black-tie event that set the tone of the season.
One of the many things I like about the South Arkansas Symphony are the holiday concerts. Coming up Dec. 2, the Community Christmas concert is one of my favorites. This year Broadway performers Gary and Beth Mauer will be adding to the program. Gary performed last year with Three Phantoms, a company of singers including three who have all played the role of Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Phantom of the Opera.”
The combined school choirs from Smackover and El Dorado will surely make the Christmas season come alive. This will be a don’t miss concert for me.
Another concert, coming May 24, is circled with an exclamation mark on my calendar. Symphony on the Square always performs around Memorial Day. Usually the symphony will play Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
A few years back when we were on vacation in Boston, we heard the Boston Pops play the overture, complete with cannons firing; if South Arkansas Symphony plays it next year, it will bring back some very pleasant memories.
As powerful as that piece is, it is not the reason I place it on the top of my symphony list. As the symphony members play John Phillip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” they pause toward the end and play all the Armed Forces theme numbers. When “Anchors Aweigh” or “Marines’ Hymn” begin and the veterans who served in those branches of service stand, it makes me proud to be an American.
Back when Vertis started the El Dorado Main Street program, we had a national Main Street program consultant come into town. Downtown was struggling, and store occupancy was less than 25 percent. His recommendations included making downtown the center of town again.” You’ll know it’s the center when you see children playing around the monuments,” he said.
Some 35 years later, after a lot of work by a lot of people, the symphony performed for the first time on the steps of the courthouse. As we watched and listened, I nudged Vertis. “Look,” I whispered, “children are playing around the monuments!” We will always remember that symphony performance as being the moment when downtown was the “center of town” again.
When we moved back to south Arkansas in 1975, the symphony was struggling, and when we compared it with some of the symphonies in Texas, we knew it needed improvement.
Now, after steady growth over the years, as the quality of the musicians mproved under the talented hand of Kermit Poling, the tireless promotion work of executive director Sara Coffman, and now the inclusion of ballet and opera to the performances, the South Arkansas Symphony has reached a new performance level.