Springfield Daily Herald–There have been some rough seasons in the past for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra but if this year’s recruiting class is a sign of things to come, sold out concerts and overwhelming demand for season tickets may become common. The SSO front office announced yesterday that even though no tickets remain for next season, by making a contribution to the symphony’s booster club, fans can have their name placed on a waiting list for a future seat lottery.
Music Director and Conductor Glenn Helmer has already received commitments from three woodwind players ranked by “American Symphony” magazine in the top 50 nationally and promises that more of that caliber will be on the way once potential recruits get a look at Springfield’s new $300 million Performing Arts Center. Orchestra General Manager Suzanne Briggs said that the board believes that “players are really going to want to play here once they see what the dressing rooms in the new concert hall look like.”
Each year, the orchestra’s recruiting season is hotly anticipated, as is the free agency period that opens next Tuesday. (The Daily Herald will publish its annual in-depth look at the upcoming symphony season the first Sunday in August.) Orchestra board members are saying, however, that they don’t recall ever seeing this much interest and excitement so far in advance of opening day.
Chief among the conducting staff’s concerns this offseason will be filling the gaps in a brass section that has been decimated by injuries and free agency. Associate Principal horn player David Vaughn is trying to return from ACL surgery that prematurely ended what commentators were calling his best season ever, but Briggs is making no predictions about Vaughn’s status despite the crush of national reporters at every weekly news conference that now seem interested in little else. Rumors are also swirling that veteran third trumpet Max Metz is considering retirement after suffering his second concussion of the season during last July Fourth’s performance of the 1812 Overture. Briggs is likewise mum on his condition, deferring to the orchestra’s medical staff regarding his future.
Asked whether the organization may pursue controversial Washington Symphony Orchestra third trumpet E.J. Johnson, Briggs said that Johnson’s well-known personal problems, his arrest record, and his notoriously bad relationship with reporters would not be a detriment to signing him to a long term deal if some other highly paid players would be willing to renegotiate their contracts to allow for room under the League’s salary cap.
Talk radio was ablaze this past week with speculation and argument about whether rookie percussionist Sara Tipton will be given the starting snare drum part in next week’s season finale of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, or if Maestro Helmer will stay with veteran Christopher Lewis even though Lewis was pulled from last week’s performance for dropping his sticks twice during the final few minutes of Strauss’ Radetzky March and badly muffing the triangle part in the Barber of Seville Overture.
In other news, Springfield University football coach Sam Lowry has announced special pricing for next year’s season and hopes that a “buy-one, get-one free” ticket promotion will stimulate more local interest. He said that the team might have to consider scheduling two fewer games per season for the foreseeable future if the bottom line doesn’t start to improve. He is encouraging parents to get their children involved in sports at an earlier age even though the culture downplays their significance.