Dear Music Lover,
A Happy New Year to you! I hope your holidays were filled with good company, good food, and great music. I am always struck by how many people support our efforts to bring the finest symphonic music and music education to central Missouri, but I rarely have the opportunity to speak to them in person, or tell them of my hopes for the future. It is important to me to reach all of our MOSY members now, at the start of a brand-new year, to tell you all about the exciting things we have been doing and my plans for the 2019 season.
To begin, I hope you were able to attend the 2018 Symphony of Toys holiday concert as part of your festivities. A record number of children were in the audience this year, and a record number of toys were donated to the local Marine Toys for Tots program. Many of the 200-plus young children in attendance entered a drawing to conduct the orchestra live. The 12 winners gave our musicians a wonderful gift--the special moments when we observe a young person experience something totally new and exciting. Our young conductors’ eyes were wide with a little bit of fear and a great deal of awe!
This past autumn was very busy for our Conservatory orchestras. The eight performances they gave culminated over the holiday season with a festive, first-ever concert event in Moberly. The performance was very well-received and brought great recognition to our program. The event’s success has inspired talk of it becoming an annual holiday concert for the Moberly community.
The Conservatory will be auditioning for the Spring semester on January 12, then off we go again with our three orchestras and seven quartets preparing for concerts in March, April and May.
If you have not figured out yet, the Conservatory is an equal part of my role with MOSY as well as being an equal part of our mission. Without our extraordinary Conservatory, I do not think we would be the relevant organization we are today.
-- from Hot Summer Nights 2018
In May, our orchestra will be arriving for our annual Hot Summer Nights Festival. We’ll be kicking off the Festival on June 1st with our first performance, an all Beethoven concert !
Throughout the season we will be performing Brahms, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Bernstein and much more. Look forward to our Silent Movie Night with orchestra accompaniment, and a fully staged opera production featuring our Resident Opera Artists. Our chamber music series returns to Broadway Christian Church, as well as two family concert events. I’m also exploring the possibility of producing a full-length American musical.
Be sure to renew your symphony membership and join us at the Hot Summer Nights Sneak Peek event in March to hear insider info about the festival, including the full lineup. As you can tell, MOSY is busy and buzzing with excitement for Summer 2019!
Finally, the Missouri Symphony is pleased to announce Courtney Bouska has joined our leadership team as Administrative Director. You may remember Courtney as our former office administrator. She has many years of experience with the organization, and skills in business development, operations, implementation and training, and technology. Courtney understands that connecting with the people you're trying to help is the key to crafting creative solutions to all life's--and business's--little problems.
And Courtney would love to connect with you! If you have any questions or comments, or just to say hello and welcome back, shoot Courtney an email at courtney@themosy.org or call her at 573.875.0600.
Bringing the very best symphonic music to central Missouri takes a lot of effort from our staff, volunteers and members, as well as from our many generous donors and sponsors. I thank each of you for the ways in which each of you support The Missouri Symphony Orchestra. We cannot do it without your help.
Please keep spreading the word about our 2019 Hot Summer Nights Festival beginning June 1st, and our mission to bring high-caliber classical performances to the community, and to encourage and educate young musicians. And keep your eyes (and ears) wide open, like our young conductors, for news on Hot Summer Nights, the Conservatory and other exciting MOSY events.
On behalf of myself, all of our wonderful musicians, the staff and the Board of Directors, thank you and Happy New Year!
Kirk Trevor
Music Director
Missouri Symphony Orchestra
Missouri Symphony Conservatory
