Multifaceted music

By Gina Farthing

Published: October 14, 2008

On Oct. 24 and 25 the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra will debut its 12th season performing musical classics by artists such as Lully, Bach and Haydn.
The Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1996 as the Waynesboro Community Orchestra. In its debut concert, 23 members performed. Since that time, the orchestra has grown, doubling in size while attempting a more challenging repertoire with each season. The organization officially adopted its new name as the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra during the 2005-06 season.
The ensemble has members from communities outside Waynesboro, including Staunton, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville and Richmond, and also performs concerts in Staunton in partnership with Mary Baldwin College. In fact, the WSO is the official orchestra for the college. Members come from many skill levels and many age groups. The youngest member is Evelyn Gibbs, 13, and the orchestra’s senior member is Paul Posey.
The String School was founded in 2001 to provide instrumental instruction for area students, prepare young musicians to play in the Waynesboro Symphony Orchestra, and eventually to form the nucleus of a youth orchestra. The program offers group and individual instruction as well as participation in the String School Ensemble, designed to introduce string students to playing in an orchestral environment.
Susan Frank, 18, plays the violin. The Stuart Hall student started in the eighth grade, says her mother, Beverly Frank.
“She sits next to her teacher, Susan Black. She’s the second chair of the first violins,” Frank says. Sitting next to her teacher is a great honor for Susan, according to her mother, because Black is the concertmaster and section leader, a person only secondary to the conductor in importance. It’s the concertmaster who officially tunes the orchestra prior to a concert.
Gibbs, of Charlottesville, is another student who plays the violin.
“Evelyn’s in her third year,” says mom, Elizabeth. “We’re so grateful she gets to work with people who are so kind and nurturing to the students.”
Beverly Frank agrees. “They are very nurturing and very professional.”
Frank explains that there are a few paid professionals among the community members and that working with the professionals gives the students some actual experience playing in a symphony. It is on-the-job experience that will help the girls later.
“Susan wants to be a music teacher someday and play in an orchestra,” Frank says of her senior. “She’s preparing for auditions at a number of music schools.”
The founding conductor of the organization was Eric Stassen, who was succeeded by Jean Montès in 2006. In May 2007, Peter Wilson was appointed music director of the WSO. He now leads the ensemble in its 12th season.
Wilson will begin his second season with the WSO on Oct. 25 by appearing as both conductor and violin soloist, performing Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” He holds a doctor of musical arts degree in orchestral studies from The Catholic University of America.
A member of “The President’s Own,” Wilson serves as a violinist in The White House and Commander of the String Section for the U.S. Marine Band. In addition, he has made several appearances as guest conductor with the National Gallery Orchestra of Washington, D.C.
Wilson began his professional career as concertmaster of the Walt Disney World Orchestra in Florida. For over a decade, he served as a lecturer for the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, where he held such positions as resident conductor and acting director of the university symphony orchestra and wind ensemble, while teaching courses on podium conducting and string techniques for the university.
Wilson received a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and two advanced degrees from Catholic University. He is active as a chamber musician, recording artist and performance clinician throughout the United States and abroad and has appeared as a violin soloist with Rosemary Clooney, Renée Fleming, Bernadette Peters, and composer and conductor John Williams. In addition, he has appeared in several international magazines.
Wilson plans to include the String School ensemble in the orchestra’s spring program. Instructors include Patty Lam, Carolyn Lam, Elizabeth Connell-Barron and Don Spaulding. Professor Sharon Miller of Eastern Mennonite University provides Suzuki training. The program meets after school at Kate Collins Middle School and offers a combination of traditional and Suzuki instruction.