Big Spring Symphony and Orchestra returns to the stage of the Municipal Auditorium
Music once again flowed from the Municipal Auditorium as the Big Spring Symphony Orchestra kicked off the 2020-2021 season, after being absent from the auditoriums stage for 355 days. The Saturday evening performance was titled “The Versatile Big Spring Symphony.”
“(The show) is very well named as we have had a lot of things to deal with, obviously. The program has been changed to work with a smaller orchestra to allow for them to be spread out.,” Mark Watt, Big Spring Symphony Association Board President, said. “Not only have the musicians had to be versatile, but Dr. Graumann - who is in his 19th year conducting - had to be versatile as well.”
The evening began with the National Anthem before the program began. Attendees and Symphony and Orchestra members were socially distanced in their seats, on stage and in the audience. Throughout the auditorium Covid-19 precautions were in place, including the use of masks and sanitizing stations.
Guest Artist Cellist Jeffrey Lastrapes performed with the Big Spring Symphony on Saturday evening. After arriving
on stage, Lastrapes started Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 85 by Edward Elgar. Lastrapes is an active soloist, chamber musician and teacher having performed and taught in Europe, South America, Asia and in every region of the US. In 2009, Lastrapes gave his New York debut at Merkin Hall to critical acclaim. On a more local level, he was the recipient of the Texas Tech Alumni Association “New Faculty Award” and in 2017 served as the August commencement speaker where he shared his journey as a visually impaired musician.
Due to health reasons, Guest Conductor John Giordano was not able to take part in the Saturday evening performance.
For those who missed the performance this past weekend, there are still two more opportunities to see the Symphony and Orchestra perform coming up before the season wraps up. The BSSO will be performing the music of Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody” featuring Jeans n’ Classics on March 20 and the Pops Extravaganza
The Texas Tenors on April 24.
Symphony tickets are available around the community including the Convention and Visitors Bureau, HE-B, The Karat Patch, Heritage Museum and online.
Amanda Duforat is the Managing Editor at the Big Spring Herald. To contact her, e-mail editor@bigspringherald.com or call 432-263-7331.
Ihave come to realize that I grew up in a perceived time of innocence. In my growing up years in Waco, pulled my wagon around to houses in the neighborhood, collecting old worn out pots, pans and anything else made of any type of metal that might be used in the war effort. I also used my lit- tle red wagon to haul newspapers I had collected to the place where they were being picked up.
My parents bought war bonds. I gave dimes to patriotic causes. At Bell’s Hill Elementary School I played a wounded soldier in a wartime skit. I loved doing it because the prettiest girl in my second grade class acted as the nurse. I remember blackouts. Civil Air Patrol wardens walked around and if they saw a light on in a house they knocked on the door and told the residents to keep their house dark so enemy planes wouldn’t spot it.
All the kids in the neighborhood had pictures of German planes so they could be identified if we happened to see them in the skies over Waco. My first job was counting the ration stamps in my daddy’s butcher shop. A little sticker on the windshield facing the driver in our car read: IS THIS TRIP REALLY NECESSARY? It was a time of saving everything and everybody did because we in our own way were helping win the war. Everybody was pulling together. All of us had family members in the armed services. When they came home after the war, they were somehow different.
When I was with the Army Security Agency during the cold war, I was sent to Germany for a couple of years. It was a time of turmoil there because the country was divided into east and west. When I went to the World’s Fair in Brussels the American Pavilion had a display of what was called Circarama. A movie showing the Statue of Liberty, the Golden
Gate Bridge, a baseball game, the Grand Canyon, aerial sights of American cities, wheat fields of Kansas, children playing and other aspects of Americana were projected onto a 360-degree screen in a round building. You could turn completely around and wherever you looked you saw images of the United States. And you did this while America the Beautiful played over loud speakers. I have chills today thinking about it.
When you are away from your country for two years you get a good look at what we have as Americans. And it makes us proud. I remember driving along the coast of Spain by myself one midnight while Armed Forces Radio was signing off with the national anthem. I stopped the car, got out, and stood at attention with my hand over my heart until the music stopped. When I got back to New York I took my duffel bag off my shoulder hit the ground and kissed the asphalt. I was glad to be home.
I really thought everybody was patriotic, like I was, proud to be Americans. I thought that until January 6, 2021.