Stephen Vann, executive director of the Nashville Symphony, is looking at the NSO’s new quarters in the Cummins Station Building. There is much to like in what he sees—room to grow, public areas that do credit to his orchestral organization, and a long strip of composers’ names forming a frieze along the office walls.
There is even more to like in what he hears. He hears critical praise for a 50th season just passed. He hears news that the symphony’s recently released recording is one of the top sellers at Tower Records. (The symphony’s second disc will be released soon.) He hears that subscriptions for the orchestra’s 51st season are already well ahead of the brisk pace set at this time last year.
It’s understandable, then, if Vann is excited—excited by the prospect of a season in which tickets to individual performances are becoming hard or impossible to obtain. He’s equally excited about the content of the upcoming season, which includes a continuation of the recently instituted Ryman series and several noteworthy special concerts: cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Sept. 12, the Holiday Pops offering with John Berry, and a Valentine’s Day concert with Johnny Mathis. Finally, he’s excited by the fact that ticket buyers are beginning to sense that the NSO is not limited strictly to a classical repertoire—the group has developed a larger orchestral tradition.
Kenneth Schermerhorn, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s music director and conductor, is looking across a conference room table at the same NSO offices. Over the next few months, he’ll be working a concert schedule that includes world-caliber artists like the aforementioned Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Joshua Bell, and pianists Emanuel Ax and Peter Serkin. He’ll also continue his search for possible replacements for recently resigned principal flutist Charles Wyatt.
Needless to say, Schermerhorn is also excited. This year, his ensemble’s standard repertoire will be demonstrated by performances of symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Dvorák, and Saint-Saêns; concertos by Brahms, Beethoven, and Mozart; and large-scale works by Strauss, Respighi, and Rachmaninoff. This November, Schermerhorn will be privileged to conduct a work that has held his fascination for his entire career, Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. He’ll also conduct the seldom-heard seventh symphony of Gustav Mahler.
There’s plenty more to keep the conductor’s anticipation high: The Nashville Symphony Orchestra will be hosting percussionist Christopher Lamb in a performance of a new percussion concerto by audience-pleasing composer Joseph Schwantner. And in January, Schermerhorn will be linking back up with a buddy from his old army days, composer, conductor, and performer David Amram, whose new work, commissioned by the widow of esteemed flutist Murray Panitz, will be premiered by the NSO. In short, Schermerhorn is excited because the artistic life of the organization that he directs is on the brink of even greater success.
Tom Mitchell, director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus and recently named director for the Pops Series concerts, is making notes on a small pad. He’s writing down some pieces that interest him for this weekend’s concert with singer Judy Collins, and he’s scratching out ideas for the Holiday Pops offerings. He’s hoping to expand the NSO’s audience by attracting classical series subscribers to Pops concerts and in turn interesting Pops concertgoers in classical series offerings.
Pleased as he is about the near-future, Mitchell is also making notes to himself about the April NSO concert that will feature the chorus and orchestra in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor by Borodin. He’s also sketching out a new placement for the chorus at concerts and jotting down the dates for the symphony’s performance of Messiah at the Ryman. He’s excited that the players he directs have become much more than a symphony-sized backup band.
All three men have good reason to be excited—and so do Nashville-area concertgoers. The waiting is over. This Friday night, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra begins its 51st season. The NSO has frequently, in the past, been a group of musicians playing classical music. But soon listeners will recognize it for what it has become—a powerful, flexible instrument of an orchestra.
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