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Richmond Symphony to fit on Prizery stage this weekend
We can make this work.
That's what Richmond Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor and Chorus
Director Erin R. Freeman said about concerns that The Prizery's stage
was too small to accommodate the Symphony, which appears here Saturday
at 7:30 p.m.
In fact, with its home base Carpenter Center under renovation, the
symphony has had to get pretty creative about where it plays, said
Freeman over the weekend from her home in the state capital.
Just recently, the symphony played consecutive gigs at Toad's Place (a
hip Richmond performance space), a high school auditorium and the
"boomy" atrium of the Science Museum of Virginia.
So, in looking at The Prizery's intimate setting, Freeman decided on
performing Bach's Cantata No. 4. Bach wrote it early in his career and
wrote it for just strings and chorus. It wasn't until later that the
trumpets and trombones and other instruments were added. So, if
anything, the performance will adhere to the historical while also
getting everyone on stage who needs to be there.
In Bach's day, the original cantata was probably performed from the
confines of a cramped choir loft, So if Bach could figure it out, we
can certainly do it at The Prizery, said Freeman.
Then comes intermission. For the second half, the chorus will be
switched out for the other instruments ñ†flutes, clarinets, various
horns, a timpani and more ñ in order to perform a Hayden symphony.
We have an amazing stage crew, said Freeman. they can get us into
just about anywhere. If the crew are magicians in Freeman's eyes, the
musicians are
equally adept at adjusting their playing to match a venues acoustics.
Being without a home has not been all bad, said Freeman. In getting out
and about, were bringing music to people who wouldn't have thought of
going to a symphony she said.
For some gigs, there's no backstage entrance, no separate parking lot,
there's not that invisible wall between performer and audience.
So a musician might remark to a patron after a show, I saw that you
really enjoyed that Wagner! I because the musician could see the
audience so well.
And, this weekend, the audience might want to get a good look at
Jennifer Debiec Lawson, a flutist who has local ties: She has lived
here off and on with her parents, who came to the area in 1990.
Although her mother is deceased, her father, Jim Debiec, still lives in
South Boston. Lawson is on the faculty at the University of Richmond
and the College of William & Mary.
Freeman is the newly appointed associate conductor. Her
responsibilities include conducting the popular intergenerational
Genworth Financial Kicked Back Classics Series and Kicked Back
Classics, leading the Wachovia Securities Pops Series, and artistic
direction for its four youth orchestras. In addition, she is the James
Erb Choral Chair as director of the 130-voice Richmond Symphony Chorus.
According to the symphony's website, the press has described Freeman's
conducting style as dynamic but Grounded and sensitive while
audiences have deemed her inspiring animated entertaining and
thoroughly charming
The special tobacco exhibition in The Prizery's art gallery will be
open at 6:30 p.m. prior to the show and during intermission.
The symphony plays this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. For ticket information,
call The Prizery box office at 572-8339 or visit
www.prizery.com to
secure tickets online.