In today's America, in every city, small town and suburb, there are wonderful musicians seemingly everywhere! They are hidden away in kitchens, offices, classrooms, and amidst the machinery on factory floors.
Many people sing and play instruments very well indeed, but have 'day jobs' as scientists, industrial workers, housewives, teachers and many other occupations within our enormously diverse economy.
So often, after playing in the college or high school band or orchestra, instrumentalists are left with limited outlets for their talents, especially since most have chosen to bring in family incomes from non-musical endeavors.
Are you one of these folks? Would you call yourself a serious avocational musician with a serious need to do serious music? You would? Then have we got good news for you! There exists in East Tennessee a major symphony orchestra where your diligence and talent can find a home among kindred spirits.
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The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra and the Oak Ridge Chorus with conductor Serge Fournier.
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The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra (born -- like the city -- in the midst of World War II) is the oldest continuously performing symphony orchestra in Tennessee, and one of the finest musical organizations among small towns anywhere in the world.
We're not speaking of a local chamber orchestra that manages to assemble enough players for a couple of concerts during the season: We're speaking of an ensemble that has recently done the Mahler "Resurrection" Symphony, the Bloch "Sacred Service," the Beethoven Ninth, the Brahms Second Piano Concerto, and other masterpieces.
Over its illustrious 57 years, the orchestra has performed all the same challenging and demanding works -- from Schubert to Sibelius to Shostakovich, from Bach to Berlioz to Bartok -- that have been programmed by major orchestras everywhere. And it has only been able to achieve that wonderful record because of the core of avocational players that has always been at the heart of its existence.
In the earliest days, under the baton of founder Waldo Cohn, the ORSO was indeed all avocational. It was an amateur symphony in the fullest sense of the word, formed for the lovers of music and lovers of music-making that were abundant in the city created by and for science and technology.
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Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Fournier, left, with well-known composer Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein directed the New York Philharmonic and composed "West Side Story," "Candide" and "Chichester Psalms," among other works.
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Today the symphony, like the city of Oak Ridge, has reached not only a higher level of maturity but a far greater integration into the broader culture of East Tennessee. Now, too, within the ORSO are a group of professional players, adding strength, virtuosity and leadership that are needed for great performances of difficult works.
No orchestra of this caliber can thrive without this kind of sustenance. But ORSO is not simply a group of professional first chairs with room for a few lucky amateurs. Several of the principals in the orchestra are avocational, unpaid musicians.
About half the stage musicians in most concerts are avocational, playing their full part as citizens of the "Volunteer" State, having grasped a golden opportunity available for talented avocational musicians to perform for an appreciative, musically literate audience.
The Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra opens this first full season of the millennium under the leadership of a new conductor, Maestro Serge Fournier. Fournier holds a wealth of credentials in the field of conducting, including four First Prizes from the Paris Conservatory of Music.
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Fournier is shown several years ago conducting the New York Philharmonic during a live televised concert.
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He has trained under great musicians like Charles Munch and Maurice Duruflé, and served as assistant conductor to the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. He spent 14 years as music director and conductor of the Toledo Symphony, and has had numerous guest conducting roles around the world.
Fournier is no stranger to Oak Ridge, nor to working with avocational musicians, having served as director of the Oak Ridge Chorus for four previous seasons.
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Bill Schwenterly is principal horn player for the symphony.
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During that time he led the orchestra in works with the chorus, such as Honegger's "King David," Bloch's "Sacred Service" and Handel's "Messiah." No more gifted or experienced conductor has ever stepped to the podium in Oak Ridge.
Fournier and the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association, the organizational body governing both the orchestra and chorus, have a stated mission to provide opportunities for area residents both to hear and participate in fine music.
Implicit in that mission is also the educational role, encouraging and supporting development of musical talent in the schools or wherever else it may be found in the area.
Here is your opportunity to use your musical talents. The orchestra, like the chorus, holds weekly rehearsals for the talented amateurs who make up their ranks. Fournier has made a strong promise to prepare both musical organizations for the challenging scores they will perform.
Make no mistake, the challengers are great, because the music chosen for the coming season includes works -- like the Verdi "Requiem," the Shostakovich "Festival Overture," the Beethoven "Choral Fantasy," the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, the Gershwin "An American in Paris" -- which have special appeal to players and hearers alike.
If you'd like to find out more about the orchestra, or the chorus, or other activities within ORCMA, call the ORCMA president, Charles Yust, at 482-2186 or e-mail us at office@orcma.org. You will be warmly welcomed.
Mike Cates, a physicist, is a member of the Oak Ridge Chorus and past president of the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association.
