Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 28 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: Orchestra (Fall 2015)

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Meet Bob Suggs, conductor of Baltimore County's own Greenspring Valley Orchestra.

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And now we're going to switch to another of the performing arts: music.

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Most of you have heard of marin alsop and the bso,.

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But did you know that baltimore county has its very own symphony orchestra?.

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This season,, the greenspring valley orchestra, celebrates one of our country's greatest musicians,, the man credited for creating the american sound, george gershwin.

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The gershwin gala features the orchestra and an incredible line-up of gifted singers and musicians,.

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Including yours truly. here to tell us about "by george, by ira, by gershwin".

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Is the orchestra's artistic director, maestro robert suggs.

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Bob, good to see you.

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Great to be here, carolyn. can I call you bob? of course. ( laughter, ), maestro bob. of course.. That's a good new nickname. well,, let's first of all, before we talk about gershwin,.

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Let's talk about the greenspring valley, orchestra.

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You've been around for how long? we formed in the fall of 2002.

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With a nucleus of stevenson, university students.

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And the faculty and community members.

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It was a chamber orchestra initially of about 25,.

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And over the years we've grown to about 60.

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Wow! congratulations!, that's great!,.

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It is gratifying.

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And the perfect size orchestra to do a big, gershwin, gala concert.

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I think so., I think so.

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Everyone gets into the gershwin music and they've been--.

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Orchestra members have been looking forward to it for a long time.

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okay,, so you have an incredible season.. You kick off your season with this gershwin concert..

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Why did you--? I understand it's a pretty ambitious program--.

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It's an ambitious program.. There are a lot of pieces on it,, some of which.

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Are quite difficult, like rhapsody in blue,.

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Which features baltimore county native elizabeth borowsky.

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I got to tell you,, I know elizabeth and she is one gorgeous woman.

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I've never seen a woman actually play the rhapsody in blue with orchestra and she is not only gorgeous to listen to.

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But to watch at the same time.

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We'll all be looking forward to that., (, laughter, ) and then there's some other great performers, --.

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Tom beard, baltimore county-an.

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Tom beard, we've worked with before.. We did a great italian concert where he did some arias a couple of years. Ago.

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A wonderful guy to work with.

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Great personality, great voice., great voice., he sung porgy all over the world,. So of course that means--.

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The fact that he is on the roster means you're going to be doing some highlights from porgy and bess.

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Of course. of course.

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Yes. okay, so you're doing the two big things and then a lot of songs from the great american songbook, by gershwin.

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yes., all well known, or...?.

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Many well known. of course, strike up the band,. You know, things like that., but also some things that I had never heard of before. --.

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Babbitt and the bromide. I had to look that up on youtube.

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To see fred, astaire and gene kelly doing that one.

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But, from some of the-- from the early broadway musicals.

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That, frankly, I have not seen those musicals before.

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Well, truth be told,. I put this show together.

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And have performed it with a couple, different orchestras and I'm really looking forward to doing it with greenspring valley, orchestra. so,. The narrative is theatrical and entertaining,, but you learn a lot about gershwin,, so people who are new to gershwin, it's a great concert.

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Right., it's not just a concert.

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if people are expecting to hear just one piece right after another,, it's not that.

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I mean, there's an ongoing narrative that puts everything into context,.

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And you get this broad overview of the entire body of work.

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Of george gershwin,, who unfortunately died far too young.

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I know, he did, yeah,, that's pretty amazing. well,, so let's go over the, sort of the specifics..

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The date is october, 4th-- october 4th,, yes. and what's exciting, is though I love stevenson university,, you have this incredible partnership set up with the gordon center.

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Yes,, the gordon center,, which happens to be only about.

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A mile away from our owings mills, campus.

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Stevenson has two separate campuses.: the original one on greenspring valley, road,, the owings mills, campus,.

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Where all the dorms are and the school of business, and gordon center very close by and we're starting.

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A very close working relationship with the gordon center.

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So it's exciting because it's a fantastic venue, --, the acoustics and parking, is great.

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Yeah,, it's one of greatest mid-size concert halls in the entire area.

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Yeah, I know. so it's terrific. and the concert starts at what time?

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three o'clock., three o'clock, okay. and tickets are a steal,. I have to say.

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yes,. I think so.

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Yeah, thanks in part to some support from the maryland state arts council.

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And the baltimore county commission on arts and sciences.

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Yes, yes., it's been a great thing.

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In the ten seconds left, we've got to talk about the rest of your season,.

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You've got the december concert.

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Rest of the season,. We have a great december concert that is all focused on music inspired by royals --.

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Kings, queens, princes, princesses;.

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And the spring concert, we have a summer series, that's all free.

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All right. terrific! we're going to be there.. I know I'm going to be at the concert.

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Of course., we'll all be. all right. thanks so much, bob.

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So join us for an afternoon from the gershwin american songbook., that's sunday, october, 4th at the gordon center for the performing arts in owings mills.