#arkansassymphonyorchestra

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Conductor Geoff Robson leading the @arsymphony last night at @robinsoncenterlr #arkansassymphonyorchestra (at Robinson Center)

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Loved this past Saturday's concert when the #arkansassymphonyorchestra got a chance to rock out with the crazy talented #chloelowery and #lakishajonesmusic 🙏🙏🙏 (at Robinson Center)

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Busy recording members of the #arkansassymphonyorchestra for the Ruth Allen Concert series for #uamshealth https://www.instagram.com/p/CV1keRjoDB9/?utm_medium=tumblr

[arsymphony-blog]

Finding Your Note

Jim Gunnell—ASO Blog Guest Contributor

I was weeping as I sat in the shadows of the music-filled auditorium. I thought to myself, “What is wrong with me?  Why am I crying?” I felt embarrassed. Here I am, a grown man crying for no apparent reason. My heart raced and beads of perspiration formed on my forehead as I tried to hold back the tears. I quickly discovered there’s no inconspicuous way to wipe tears from your face, so I let them flow. I felt like each one of them was capturing the light from the stage. I was confident that the glistening droplets must be distracting to the people sitting around me. I told myself, “Breathe. Just breathe. Inhale. Exhale.”

As the music reached a crescendo, I surfed on the sound waves to a distant shore deep inside myself. I think this must have been happening throughout the auditorium. It was as if the sound waves broke across the remote places in each of us, washing up emotion and applause. I watched the faces of the people around me and the faces of the orchestra as the applause flew around them like a murmuration of starlings. The word “applause” comes from the Latin word applausus, meaning “the beating of wings”. Hundreds of wings were beating in the air just above the waves that evening, carrying our joy to the talented musicians who graciously shared their years of practice and dedication with us. I felt like they were playing just for me, and I wondered how many others felt the same way.

  It wasn’t until my drive home after the concert that I realized why I wept. During the last movement, violinist, Andrew Irvin, played a note whose frequency resonated deep inside of me. In that moment I realized that this was “my note”—the note that connects my soul with something divine. The birth of this note—my beautiful note—had disrupted my stillness. In that moment I was overwhelmed with awe and gratitude. And I wept.

The ASO had unwittingly conspired with my angels to bring me a lesson on being fully present in the moment, in the now. Each time I hear my note and the hundreds of other notes that resonate with listeners throughout the auditorium, I am lifted just high enough to see the feet of angels dancing to Mozart, Bach, and my favorite-- Sergei Prokofiev. The next time you are sitting in the dim stillness of the concert hall listening to the thousands of perfect notes being played, try to find yours—the note that connects you to something divine. If you’re like me, this singular discovery will leave you breathless.  The note—your note—will grab your attention and remind you to enjoy the vibrating atoms of grace and gratitude that are carried on the crests of the sound waves.

Thank you, David Gerstein, for inviting me to come and hear you play. Thank you, Andrew, for playing my note. And thank you to the incredible musicians whose love for their craft stirred my muse who awakened me to the words I’ve written in your honor. In joy.

[arsymphony-blog]

From the Shelves to the Stage

Even before the final notes of the ASO’s closing concert echo throughout the concert hall, work has already begun on next season’s ventures in the orchestra library and the education department.  

As the ASO’s orchestra librarian and education coordinator (as well as being a violinist in the orchestra), work doesn’t come to a standstill over the summer months.  While there is a sense of respite, preparation for the upcoming season continues.  This is when some important work gets done, particularly in the orchestra library.  

Music for next season has already been pulled from our shelves, checked, and organized.  Any music that we don’t have in our library is either purchased or rented and orders are placed early in the summer.  When this music arrives to us, the sets are checked, sorted, numbered, and stamped.  After that, our string principals begin the bowing process.  Each principal marks the music with up bows or down bows, slurs or staccatos, and any other markings that will ensure rehearsals go smoothly.  Then all these markings are transferred by me into every string part that is used on stage, for every piece performed, for every concert.  Though certainly time consuming, this is a vital part of preparing for the season.  

This year, an additional project will be to move the library to our new downtown office space.  Shelving has been installed and is eagerly waiting to be filled with 550 classical works, 200 pops pieces, 100 chamber pieces, 150 youth orchestra works, and 100 vocal works.  This will be a serious undertaking, although one I’m looking forward to!

Meanwhile, on the education side, work continues with our two full-time quartets to produce the brochures that will promote their four string quartet demos and instrument petting zoos, as well as the Children’s Concerts featuring the entire orchestra and the ASO Guild’s “Orchestra and You” program.  These brochures are mailed to schools all over the state.  Also, the quartet’s visits to after school programs in Little Rock, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Our House, In His Image, Positive Impact, and Life Skills for Youth to name a few, are scheduled.  ASO rental instruments that have been used by students participating in our in-school string classes during the year have been returned and must be inventoried, cleaned, and repaired for a new batch of students to play in September.  

Finally, an incredibly monumental task that takes all summer: selecting a concert outfit for the opening night we’ve all been working towards!  Can’t wait to see you in September!

[arsymphony-blog]

Preparing for Concerts

Although this is my first year, I have gained a lot of experience preparing for concerts. As an artist, I have only known one side of being prepared for a concert, which is making sure my performance mix is perfect, rehearsing, envisioning myself on the stage, but being the one who is helping to set the stage for other artists is another experience in itself. 

Seeing things from the other side has helped me gain a new appreciation and respect for the people who set the stage for me and other artists alike. Preparing for opening night of an ASO concert kind of felt like preparing for my own performance. I felt the same anxiety and pressure that I would feel if it were me up there. These feelings of anxiety and pressure do not come from a place of fear, but are rooting in a deep need to succeed. I don’t ever believe that we won’t succeed. I just understand that it is our job to make things as perfect as possible for those people in the audience who support us, our mission, and want to see this organization live on past their years and ours.

In preparation for my first opening night I didn’t know what to think or to expect. I just know that I had to be mentally prepared for anything. I knew there would be a lot of running around and making sure every loose end was tied tight, but working with a great team and tightly knit unit can make big tasks seem small. The only real preparation required for me is mental preparation. I make sure that my mind is clear and that I come ready to work and do whatever I need to do to make sure things run smoothly.

[arsymphony-blog]

Working Toward the New Season

The 2014-2015 season is over, and now I don't have to do any more work until September, right?

Not so fast...

My name is Brandon Dorris, and I'm the Associate Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the ASO. If anyone can suggest anything to add to my title, let me know, because I am set to win the hardest to read name tag award!

There are a lot of things I love about working for the ASO, but here are two at the top of the list: my job is to get great live music heard by more great people in Arkansas, and I get to continue my career as a woodwind player, too. Sometimes I even get to do it for the ASO! Here's a photo from stage left at Robinson Center - I chose it because it's my good side.

The nuts and bolts of my job in marketing are pretty easy to guess - I get a budget, I buy ad space in newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc., and try to get as many people as possible excited about the incredible musicians and music of the ASO. As I sifted through pictures of all of my budget spreadsheets and media contracts, I thought I would focus on some of the less obvious work that I do. Like:

Being both color-blind and not really a visual person, I rely on professional designers to produce our print materials, like our season brochure. The process is fun (for me) and grueling (for the designers), with a lot of little tweaks in many revisions as we try to get to the perfect piece. 

Figuring out how many people can fit in a venue, and how much revenue we can expect from a concert in that venue. I have to go to the venue, take a lot of pictures, measure a lot of things, and crunch the numbers.

I usually spend time in the summer to work on the ASO, Youth Orchestra, and musician's websites. I just finished doing some work on the Youth Orchestra site that included me learning and writing some new code on our server.

In a related field, I am the closest thing the ASO has to a staff IT person. I buy and maintain all of our computers, servers, network equipment, and software. I like to get the most out of everything we buy, so when we replace a computer I generally salvage its parts for upgrading other machines or, for example, making a 320GB external hard drive for only $7!

One last thing I will share is a lot closer to the concert: getting our box office and signage to the event. We take a lot of stuff just for helping patrons get to the halls easily and find their way around once they get there. We hope to sell a lot of tickets to each concert, so we need the box office computers and associated gadgetry as well. I use the ASO van each concert weekend to move our front-of-house equipment to the concert.

As I am writing this blog post I realize it is time to head off to a meeting about security at our concert halls. We work with the local police to ensure safety and peace-of-mind for our patrons at all of our halls. I better not keep the people in blue waiting...see you at the hall!

[arsymphony-blog]

Getting Ready for Opening Night

Here it is in May, and our 2014/15 season just ended. Preparations have been underway for a while for next season, and my work for opening night is just about over. My name is Meagan Adams, and I’m the Finance Director for the ASO. Yes, I’m one of those “boring accountants” but at least I get to work around fun people! Have you ever heard the story about the stone masons working on a cathedral? You could say I work on budgets, or that I make sure the numbers add up, but I prefer to think that I’m helping “build a cathedral” – which in this case happens to be the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Work for the opening night begins months ahead of time. The Music Director creates the programming, the Operations and Production manager figures out what musicians are needed and what it will cost to produce it, the Box Office manager estimates what the ticket revenue will be, and the Development department figures out how much money we’ll need to raise to cover the shortfall (the price of your ticket only covers a part of what it actually costs to put on a performance). I take all that information, put it together, and help figure out if we can afford to do what we want to do. Sort of like your monthly budget, only bigger.

And here’s where it’s all done, my humble little “hoffice” (office in the hallway): 

Not all accountants are neat freaks, you know!