Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Celebrates 50 Years - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 7, 2026

Transcript

Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Celebrates 50 Years - TPR's In Focus - Oct. 7, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

• 0:00
  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's
• 0:04
  Montgomery campus, located on the spot of Mrs.
• 0:07
  Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring
• 0:11
  exhibits that chronicle the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• 0:15
  More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
• 0:24
  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus,
• 0:28
  and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. The Montgomery Symphony
• 0:32
  Orchestra is celebrating its 50th anniversary,
• 0:36
  and Maestro Jamie Reeves, music director and conductor,
• 0:40
  previews the upcoming concert. The music you're hearing
• 0:44
  is from Mary Elizabeth Bowden's Storyteller album.
• 0:48
  She is one of the leading brass soloists today,
• 0:52
  and she will appear with the symphony on October 16th.
• 1:00
  Jamie Reeves, welcome back to Troy Public Radio.
• 1:04
  Thank you, Carolyn. It's great to be talking with you again. Jamie,
• 1:07
  what was it like to host Yo-Yo Ma in your opening concert?
• 1:12
  Oh, wow. You know, that was such an incredible experience
• 1:15
  for us, for the orchestra and all of the musicians on stage,
• 1:19
  and really all of the programs for this season we already had planned
• 1:23
  before we knew we would be playing with Yo-Yo Ma. So that was
• 1:27
  sort of a really pleasant surprise, and I can't think of a better way
• 1:31
  to open our 50th anniversary season than to play with Yo-Yo Ma. But I
• 1:35
  told the musicians at the rehearsal at the end, we've come a long way in
• 1:38
  the past 6 years that we've worked together. I think 6 years ago where we
• 1:42
  were, and to imagine playing with Yo-Yo Ma would have been a really far-fetched
• 1:46
  idea. But to come all that way and to play with one of the greatest
• 1:49
  living artists, and then Yo-Yo Ma, who's such a gracious
• 1:52
  and generous person I mean, it was just really inspiring and
• 1:56
  to see him interact with our community and of course musically to play the Dvořák
• 2:01
  Cello Concerto, which is one of the absolute most important pieces for the cello
• 2:05
  and orchestra. It's just such a dream come true, really. We hope we can do
• 2:09
  it again sometime. Your audience was so fortunate to be there
• 2:13
  because this is your 50th anniversary season
• 2:16
  of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. You have a lot in store.
• 2:20
  Now, in this October, we're starting the first subscription
• 2:24
  concert, our Masterworks I, Brass and Bernstein, which was
• 2:28
  already planned months ago. So I'm really thrilled to get the season underway
• 2:32
  here. And each program is something very different, and I think
• 2:36
  represents a different sort of phase in the orchestra's history
• 2:40
  in Montgomery. And this first one really sort of represents what
• 2:44
  we're doing currently, what our artistic goals are,
• 2:47
  featuring works by living composers and also highlighting
• 2:51
  contemporary American music. Leonard Bernstein, for example,
• 2:55
  and his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. And then we kick off the program
• 2:58
  with Dvořák's Carnival Overture, which is one of the most exciting pieces.
• 3:02
  It's about living life, and it's a big party, actually. So it's
• 3:06
  another great way to start our season. Again, showcasing new talent.
• 3:10
  This has been such a priority of yours.
• 3:14
  Tell us about the music that led into your interview. Yeah, so that
• 3:17
  was our soloist, Mary Elizabeth Bowden, who's a wonderful classical
• 3:22
  trumpet player and one of the great living bass soloists of our time.
• 3:25
  The piece you heard was Bohemian Queen from her album Storyteller.
• 3:30
  Mary is just such a fantastic artist, and I'm thrilled to bring
• 3:33
  her to Montgomery to play Jeff Scott's Dinotropic Concerto, which is
• 3:38
  the Alabama premiere, and then another world premiere of another piece we've commissioned by
• 3:42
  Jennifer Oliverio, Time Tilt. Jamie, what is the difference
• 3:46
  between a world premiere and, say, a premiere here
• 3:49
  in the state of Alabama? Well, the world premiere, this is a
• 3:53
  piece that we commissioned. We asked the composer to write specifically for
• 3:56
  us, for the Montgomery Symphony. It'll be played for the first time ever.
• 4:00
  So the Time Tilt, that's the first ever performance of it. And then the
• 4:04
  Athena Trumpet Concerto by Jeff Scott is the Alabama premiere. And we're
• 4:08
  part of a consortium, which is where a group of orchestras come together to
• 4:12
  commission a piece. And, you know, there's a world premiere that was just given in
• 4:16
  Raleigh, North Carolina. After the world premiere, it's played all over the country.
• 4:20
  So this is one of the great things about engaging with living composers
• 4:24
  and playing new music is that not only do we get to experience these new
• 4:27
  pieces with our musicians, but it also sort of connects us to
• 4:31
  musicians around the country and around the world, which really reminds all
• 4:35
  of us that we're connected. And that's one of the great joys of commissioning works
• 4:39
  and being part of consortia and playing new music. And what are the trends there
• 4:42
  musically in each of these pieces? Well, Jeff Scott's
• 4:46
  piece, the Athena Trumpet Concerto, it's a piece that is programmatic
• 4:50
  in nature. When he was thinking of writing this piece for Mary,
• 4:54
  who he's worked with musically before, he thought of
• 4:57
  what could he write that represented a strong feminine presence—
• 5:02
  Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war.
• 5:05
  And it sort of engages with current events of our time. There's conflict
• 5:10
  around the world and sort of this imagining the
• 5:14
  goddess Athena as a figure of wisdom and also kind of a great mediator to
• 5:18
  bring peace. So in this work that he created for the orchestra, you hear
• 5:22
  sort of the dissonance and an interplay within the orchestra,
• 5:26
  perhaps even conflict. But the solo trumpet plays a fanfare and
• 5:30
  a calming force to the orchestra in a way. So it's a wonderful
• 5:34
  interaction between the soloist and the orchestra.
• 5:38
  And you can sort of imagine this figure in Greek mythology
• 5:41
  and that interaction within this piece. And then Time
• 5:44
  Tilt is a different sort of piece. It's actually written for 2 trumpets and strings.
• 5:49
  Our principal trumpet player and executive director, Brian Reese, will play the trumpet solo
• 5:53
  part with Mary. And Jennifer's idea with this is thinking of how
• 5:57
  time could be manipulated or even stolen.
• 6:00
  So she uses a lot of mixed meter. There's a lot of scalar passages inspired
• 6:05
  by the Baroque composer Vivaldi, for example. As soon as you start
• 6:09
  to feel this regular rhythmic pulse of the piece, she mixes the
• 6:12
  rhythm and the meter up. It feels like time is almost stolen. So with
• 6:17
  composers, I often ask the question, like, what is the game that they're playing or
• 6:21
  the story that they're trying to tell? With Jennifer, she's absolutely playing games
• 6:24
  with time and rhythm. You have previewed a really exciting
• 6:29
  concert coming up. Tell us when and where. So the
• 6:33
  performance we're talking about is next week. It's Friday,
• 6:36
  October 16th, 7:30 PM at the Davis Theater in
• 6:40
  downtown Montgomery. Maestro Jamie Reeves, as we look ahead
• 6:44
  to the rest of the year, I know you also have
• 6:48
  a priority of commissioning new works that are connected
• 6:52
  to Alabama, the culture and the history of this state. Do you have any
• 6:56
  more of these coming up? We sure do. This season
• 7:01
  that we're in right now, currently our 50th anniversary season,
• 7:04
  this first program actually, these 2 pieces by Jeff Scott and Jennifer
• 7:08
  Liviero are new pieces for the season. In the
• 7:13
  '27-'28 season, we're planning 2 commissions, one of
• 7:16
  which is by a composer from Alabama. The other
• 7:20
  piece, it features a musician who is Alabama-based,
• 7:24
  and it's part of a broader initiative that we created a few years
• 7:27
  ago, the Alabama Composers Project, starting with J.R.
• 7:30
  Speak, who wrote a wonderful piece for us. He's originally from North Alabama.
• 7:35
  And then last season with Nkiru Okoye is A Time for Jubilee,
• 7:39
  which was a piece that told the story of the Selma to Montgomery march.
• 7:43
  So yes, this is a great initiative of ours, and the whole idea
• 7:47
  is to cultivate interest in new music within the
• 7:50
  Montgomery and Alabama community by creating pieces
• 7:54
  that are either by composers from Alabama or their works are centered
• 7:58
  around Alabama history and culture. I just feel that if we create things that sort
• 8:02
  of hit close to home, I think it's a little bit more approachable. That's something
• 8:05
  that we're really focused on right now, and I'm really excited for those
• 8:09
  future pieces to come to life. Jamie, I want
• 8:12
  to thank you for sharing your perspective as conductor and
• 8:17
  music director. Thanks so much, Carolyn. Really happy to speak with you.
• 8:21
  That was Maestro Jamie Reeves, music director
• 8:25
  and conductor of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.
• 8:29
  More information about the October 16th concert is
• 8:33
  at the montgomerysymphony.org website.
• 8:37
  Thanks for joining us for In Focus, which is
• 8:40
  a podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and feel
• 8:44
  free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
• 8:48
  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, leaving you with more music
• 8:52
  from Mary Elizabeth Bowden's Storyteller album.
• 8:56
  This is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.