Manassas Symphony Orchestra Offers 'Change Of Pace' At Latest Concerts

MANASSAS, VA — As the Manassas Symphony Orchestra continues to provide high-quality concerts to the community, it is trying to cast a wider net to get more types of listeners engaged. One of these will be a performance with world-famous jazz clarinetist Doreen Ketchens.

Founded in 1992, the Manassas Symphony Orchestra was originally part of the Northern Virginia Community College Manassas campus. About 15 years ago, the orchestra split in two, with one remaining at the community college and one as a community orchestra.

Today, the symphony orchestra of 70 to 80 members performs five concerts each year — four at the Hylton Performing Arts Center and one summer show at the Harris Pavilion, music director James Villani told Patch.

"Some are professional musicians, some are music teachers, we have a retired doctor he wve a pharmacist we have a veterinarian," said Villani. "It's a wide variety of engineers and business people that play the orchestra, so it's very much a community minded population."

Villani has been the music director at the symphony orchestra for about 20 years. A former band director at Stonewall High School (now Unity Reed High School), he gained experience with orchestras as a player and associate conductor with the Reston orchestra. After stepping away when having children in 1999, he became an interim conductor at the Manassas Symphony Orchestra and secured the permanent position once the conductor left.

While symphony members come from a range of backgrounds, they are expected to play at an advanced level. When the symphony has openings, musicians are often recommended by existing members and go through an application audition process.

According to Villani, some members will come from far away to participate in the symphony. One man even travels from Norfolk and works remotely one day a week to attend rehearsals.

Once symphony members join, they face lots of preparation for the five concerts the symphony performs each year. Most of the concerts require seven to eight weeks of rehearsals, and the summer concerts have four weeks of preparation.

"The players are expected to learn their music, and practice their music away from rehearsal, and we do the rehearsing...when we're together," said Villani.

The audience can expect different types of performances depending on the time of year. The symphony's subscription shows in March, May and October are focused on classical music from all musical eras, while the summer concerts provide more popular music. The last show the orchestra did in March offered a fun twist with songs by soundtrack composer John Williams, the 19th century piece "Carnival of the Animals" and a symphonic medley of Beatles music.

"That was kind of a twist for us, a little different take for us, but it was a lot of fun," said Villani. "And the audience really enjoyed that, and that was one of the bigger audiences we'd had. Even going into it, there were over 600 people at that concert, and [it was] really, really received well as a little bit of a change of pace."

The December concerts are family-friendly and geared toward younger audiences. The performances include high school or middle school soloists and a synchronized 3D light music show with lights 360 degrees over the audience.

"The kids, really ages 3, 4 through high school even, that can engage them," said Villani. "For many of them, it becomes their first orchestra concerts or some cases the only orchestra concert they go to in a year for much of their young lives. So it's a way to get them interested and get them engaged and expose them to different sounds and different orchestral music."

Villani said the symphony will continue with a "change of pace" at its May 4 concert. The solost will be acclaimed jazz clarinetist Doreen Ketchens, who is nicknamed the "Clarinet Queen of New Orleans." She will perform Dixieland favorites with the full orchestra.

"She's phenomenal. And she has a wide, wide fan base, been on television a lot in the past year," said Villani. "So we're hoping to really attract a wide audience from the area to see her."

Tickets to see the Manassas Symphony Orchestra at the Hylton Performing Arts Center are $30 for adults. Children and student tickets are typically free. The summer concerts at Harris Pavilion are free to all.

Aside from ticket sales, the community symphony gets funding support from individual and corporate donors and grants from the Prince William County Arts Council and the City of Manassas. Villani says the community can help with volunteering on the board of directors or seeking donations.

The symphony's music director says support for the arts says a lot about a community.

"My opinion is that arts are where humanizes a community — the orchestras and the theatre groups and the choirs and bands," said Villani. "To have an organization that actually comes from the community back playing for the community really indicates a high level of the health of the music education, and the thriving musical education culture that we have in this area is excellent."

For more information about the symphony and to get tickets, visit www.manassassymphony.org.

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