Be Local: Live Music

Editor’s note: This is a weekly series focusing on the importance of buying local.
Love hearing orchestral music live, but don’t have the wherewithal to check out the Pittsburgh Symphony? The Washington Symphony Orchestra could be the best way to get your local fix of Bach, Beethoven, Broadway tunes and more.
Started almost two decades ago, the Washington Symphony – WSO, for short – plays the classics and pops selections in four concerts per year. The next one is coming up March 1, when the symphony will be presenting “The Beauty of the Beasts,” a performance that will feature selections from movies like “Beauty and the Beast,” “King Kong” and “Jurassic Park.”
Under the baton of Yugo Ikach, who is also the director of the choir at California University of Pennsylvania, the Washington Symphony has a mix of musicians in its ranks – some paid musicians, some volunteers, some students and some retirees. Adam Shaffer, the general manager of the WSO, pointed out that one member of the symphony’s brass section just celebrated his 88th birthday.
The Washington Symphony was formed in 2002, and is one of a handful of local symphonies in the region, including the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, the Butler County Symphony, the Beaver Area Wind Ensemble and the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, which is based in Upper St. Clair.
Trinity High School has been the WSO’s home almost since its inception, but in October, the symphony will set up shop at Canon-McMillan High School in Canonsburg. Shaffer said the symphony is undertaking the move to be at “a more central location in the county” and “reach a new audience.”
Along with selections from film scores, the upcoming WSO performance will also include “And God Created Whales,” a composition by Alan Hovhaness that will be played over recordings of whale sounds. It will also be accompanied by a slide presentation provided by Kristin Palumbo and Bella Evans of the Department of Biological and Environmental Science at Cal U.
Eight selections from Camille Saint-Saen’s “Carnival of the Animals” will also be part of the concert. Nancy Xiao, a Trinity High School senior and the winner of the WSO’s Young Artist Competition, will play a selection from Beethoven. Students from Washington County high schools will be performing alongside orchestra mentors in the WSO’s “Side by Side” program.
The concert will start at 3 p.m. at Trinity High School, with doors opening at 2:15 p.m. For additional information, go online to www.washsym.org.
Those interested in joining the Be Local Network can contact Chris Slota at 724-225-1326 or by email at chris@belocal.net. Discount cards are available at the Observer-Reporter and Almanac office, 122 S. Main St., Washington.