Symphony makes changes for ’09-10

By Guy D’Astolfo

Each Pops concert features a Broadway performer.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra is making some adjustments for 2009-10.

The season will begin a little earlier, opening Sept. 26 with a Masterworks series performance. It’s part of a schedule shift that is designed to combat low attendance during the coldest time of the year. There will be five concerts between September and December — one more than 2008-09 — but no concert in January 2010.

In other changes, the number of Pops concerts has been reduced from four to three, and one Masterworks concert will spotlight members of the orchestra instead of a guest artist. The Symphony had already eliminated one Masterworks concert for the current season, reducing the number to five.

Patricia Syak, executive director, said the moves were made necessary by escalating production costs, along with uncertainty in corporate concert underwriting and individual contributions.

“We still feel the concerts will be fresh and exciting,” Syak said.

Economic pressure has had a negative effect on attendance in the current season.

Ticket sales so far this season are down about 15 percent to 20 percent from the previous year, according to Syak.

However, there is a bright spot. Season subscription sales for 2009-10 are running ahead of the current season for the Masterworks series. “The Pops are lagging a little at this time, but the Symphony is optimistic that it will catch up,” said Syak.

The Sept. 26 Masterworks concert will feature Naoko Takada, a marimba artist from California who puts a Brazilian spin on classical music. The YSO will also do Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8.

The remainder of the Masterworks schedule is as follows:

UOct. 10, “Amadeus, Live!” The YSO will team up with Ballet Western Reserve in a performance that will include Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. A collection of the composer’s other works will be brought to life with a theatrical presentation, and dance sequences by the BWR.

UNov. 14, a tribute to Bach and Brahms that will spotlight members of the YSO.

UFeb. 6, a salute to the work of Russian composers Mussorgsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff, with guest pianist Olga Kern, a Van Cliburn competition gold medalist.

UMarch 20, the world premiere of a Christopher Brubeck composition, with guest artists Time for Three. The YSO is currently pulling together a consortium of orchestras to help fund the commission. So far, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra are on board.

Each of the Pops concerts will include a guest vocalist who has been in the original cast of a Broadway musical.

The Pop series begins Sept. 12 with “Broadway Now,” which will feature music from several recent musicals. Robert Evans, who was in “Jekyll and Hyde,” will accompany the orchestra, as will Capathia Jenkins of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Susan Egan, who played the lead role of Belle in “Beauty and the Beast,” will be the guest at the Dec. 5 Pops concert. The Youngstown Connection, a song-and-dance troupe made up of city school students, and Kenny Eldridge and the Jesus Celebration Singers will also perform at the Holiday Extravaganza concert.

The final Pops show will feature the Joe Augustine Trio and Anne Runolfsson from “Phantom of the Opera.”

The Feb. 13 concert, entitled “Symphonic Valentine,” will feature the music of George Gershwin, Frank Sinatra and others.

XFor ticket information, call (330) 744-0264.