BSO's 2005-06 season reaches new audiences

Four years ago, at the start of his second season as artistic director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, maestro Yuri Temirkanov was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "slim, dapper and handsome with an underlying Russian melancholy," and a man who "opens chasms of Soviet agony with an elegant sweep of an arm." Under his elegant arm, the symphony has made its first tour of Europe and has seen attendance surge during the subscription season. This past season saw sell-out crowds at almost every performance and included virtuoso performances of Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Hilary Hahn, Keith Lockhart and Joshua Bell.

In February, the orchestra opened up a $96 million, 1,978-seat concert hall in Southern Maryland, the Music Center at Strathmore, which has allowed the orchestra to reach out to new markets and spread the word about their shining talent. Each weekend concert that is part of the regular season is also performed at Strathmore.

Another recent addition to the BSO's programming is "Soulful Symphony," a program that seeks to "provide the opportunity for talented African-American musicians to express themselves and achieve their dreams," according to the BSO Web site. Darin Atwater, the BSO's vibrant young composer-in-residence, puts together programs that include jazz, blues, gospel, and spirituals in an orchestral format with symphonic sensibilities.

The 2005-2006 season includes more of their "Symphony With a Twist" concerts, which are preceded by martini bars and live jazz in the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall's lobby, a move that seems designed expressly to attract the younger, party crowd. Another new program is a partnership with the Baltimore Museum of Art which will bring multimedia art presentations to the Meyerhoff. Picture it: images of works by Picasso projected onto a massive screen behind the stage while the modernist music that inspired the great painter is played by the orchestra below.

These new measures are not gimmicks. The BSO is in great shape. The orchestra is reaching out to new audiences not because they have to, but because it is just what they do. Instead of trying to be another New York Philharmonic or Chicago Symphony, the orchestra wants to include the Baltimore community in their tradition of talent.