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Symphoria Heads into New Season with New Music Director

symphoria.org

  Symphoriahas put the final touches on thelineup for next season, showing continued growth for the orchestra.  The new season will also come with a new Music Director.

Larry Loh is no stranger to Symphoria and Syracuse.  In fact he was the conductor for a concert right after the name Symphoria was announced back in 2013.  He’s also conducting two of the masterworks concerts this season.  One guiding principal in putting together next season was to show how great the orchestra is.

Credit symphoria.org
Larry Loh comes to Symphoria after being Music Director for the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

  “How are expectations are as high as professional symphonic music in Central New York has always been.  So we want to definitely include some of the kinds of masterworks.  We’re beginning with the very flashy, symphonic Berlioz Symphony Fantastique.  They asked me about a wish list of pieces I thought I’d like to do in the first year as music director.”   

Those include some of the selections in next year’s Masterworks series, opening with the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and including music from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.  Loh found planning the season – with the co-op nature of Symphoria, managed largely by the musicians – exhilarating. 

“What I love, especially in the planning process, are the ideas that come from the musicians and the connections with guest artists that come from the musicians.  These are amazing direct connections.  They know what pieces they are excited to play specifically.”

The seasons also features a pops series once again, including a concert of John Williams Star Wars music (conducted by former WAER announcer Sean O'Loughlin).  Loh defends selections from the scores of movies 

Credit sym
Sean O'Loughlin will conduct pops concerts, including John Williams Star Wars music.

  as both musical and exciting.  And he says film music can be an entry point to symphony for some audience members.  There’s also a casual series, Spark concerts and a kids’ series.  Loh sees the future of the orchestra as encouraging.

“The Masterworks, initially, we were only going to program 6 of them, and then it became 8. Then this amazing collaboration to showcase Itzhak Perlman came up and that’s almost like a 9th Masterworks. We have this incredible feeling that things are fertile and expanding and actually if there’s anything that we’re doing, it’s keeping a good handle on its expansion so it doesn’t grow unreasonably fast.”                

Loh says ticket subscriptions are meeting or exceeding expectations.  Details for the season which begins in September, are at: ExperienceSymphoria.org.

There’s also a calendar of Summer Concerts, beginning with a free performance in Hamilton July 9th, including concerts in Syracuse, Fayetteville, Cazenovia and Skaneateles.  

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.