The Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming season is bigger and more star-studded than ever, its director said.
This year’s program, which begins in September, features six Masterworks concerts in addition to three specialty concerts and will include a new collaboration with actors with the new Ellis Island Program in addition to longtime favorites.
“There’s a lot to like and love and lot of familiar, wonderful big hits but also a lot of stuff that I think people will find as discoveries,” said WSO music director Michael Butterman. “That mix of familiar and fresh is one that I hope will characterize what we do in general.”
The symphony’s season-opening concert is slated for Sept. 8 and will feature pianist Simone Dinnerstein taking part in her first-ever performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2.
During a recent sabbatical from performing, Dinnerstein learned the piece, calling it her favorite concerto but one she has long felt daunted by.
“I just never felt that I was ready to learn it,” she said. “And I didn’t have the time that I felt I needed to really dig into it.”
There’s something “muscular” about the piece, Dinnerstein said, which seemed “so large both in scope and the physical endurance required to play it that I’ve been scared of it my whole life.”
For her first performance of the piece, Dinnerstein will be playing on the symphony’s brand new Steinway piano. The piano was was funded by the E.K. Sloane Fund of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation together with a matching gift from Two Friends of Music, along with additional funds from the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra.
“I’m so excited for the inaugural concert of our new Steinway, and I can think of no one I’d rather share it with than the brilliant Simone Dinnerstein,” said WSO music director Michael Butterman. “Her thoughtful musicianship combined with her virtuosity make her the ideal pianist to reveal all the colors and the power of this magnificent instrument.”
For her part, Dinnerstein is “thrilled” to play a piano with such a storied pedigree as she visits Williamsburg for the first time.
“I hope I’m going to have some free time so that I can look around because it sounds like a beautiful place,” she said.
In addition to Dinnerstein, guest artists coming to Williamsburg this season include violinist Philippe Quint and pianists Asiya Korepanova and Aldo López-Gavilán . The always-popular Holiday Pops concert, scheduled for Dec. 2 and 3, will feature John Riesen, who appeared on season 17 of America’s Got Talent in 2022. Cirque de la Symphinie, which was added to the slate last year, will also return, this time at the Ferguson Center in Newport News for an expanded performance.
One concert Butterman said he is especially looking forward to is the Ellis Island performance on March 15.
According to the season program, the production features the “stories of seven immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island” in the first half of the 20th century. The performance will feature spoken texts performed by actors from Colonial Williamsburg, which were selected from real interviews with immigrants about their experiences coming to America, “(weaving) monologues from the actual words of these immigrants into an orchestral tapestry that frames and comments on their poignant, humorous, moving and inspiring stories.”
“It’s so germane to social studies programs in schools,” Butterman said. “I wanted to find a way to offer that and … it’s a piece that works perfectly well for an adult audience but would also work well for schools. So it seems like, why limit it to one or the other?”
The ever-popular Cabaret & Cocktails performance is scheduled for Jan. 21 and will pay tribute to Aretha Franklin with guest vocalists Capathia Jenkins, a Broadway star, and three-time Grammy nominee Ryan Shaw.
This will be Butterman’s second with the symphony after joining prior to the 2022-23 season.
“Certainly last season felt, especially as the season went on (with each concert) bigger than the last in terms of attendance and response and so on, like there was kind of a crescendo of public enthusiasm,” Butterman said. “We’re hoping that we’ve got some good momentum now and hopefully we can ride that into this next season and keep building on what we have.”
Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]
