Wichita Symphony Orchestra returns to 360 format began during pandemic
The pandemic, with its restrictions for indoor audiences, gave birth to several innovations for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra during the past year.
And like Symphony in the Gardens at Botanica and Playing in the Parks with Wichita Parks and Recreation, the orchestra’s Symphony 360 is returning as the pandemic gets further into the rear view.
The concert, set last year at Century II’s convention hall, is symphony-in-the-round with audience members as close as 5 feet from the players. The audience surrounds the orchestra on all sides and gets a different audial and visual experience than the CII concert hall performances, executive director Don Reinhold said.
“They can sit up close and around the orchestra, so if they want to sit behind the percussion so they can watch Daniel (Hege, musical director) conduct and see the facial directions he gives people, that’s an option,” he said. “Or if they want to sit and watch their favorite double-bass player, they can do that too.”
Last year’s concert was a hit with symphony patrons, Reinhold said.
“Everything seemed to indicate that this was popular, and it allows us to do a somewhat smaller, more intimate orchestra piece in the space we allot for it,” he said.
The first 360 concert also went over well with the symphony performers.
“I think they liked the intimacy of it and what it invited, which was interaction between the audience and members of the orchestra,” Reinhold said. “Afterwards, it was easy to stop and talk to them, because they were right there.”
With the addition of sound amplification and overhead lights in the convention hall, “It creates a more intimate, club-like feel,” Reinhold said, and somewhat replicates the atmosphere at festivals like the Grand Teton Music Festival, where he was executive director from 2000 to 2005.
“We couldn’t do this in the concert hall,” he said.
The concert program, selected by Hege, has an unintentional theme of youth, Reinhold said.
“Sonata de Chiesa” by contemporary Black American composer Adolphus Hailstork, was written for a youth string orchestra. Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” featuring soprano Courtenay Budd singing the words of poet James Agee, features a child’s perspective. And Schubert’s Fifth Symphony was written when the composer was 19.
“All three of different time periods have this kind of youth,” Reinhold said. “In a way it’s a program of renewal. Everybody is looking to be renewed or hopefully feeling renewed.
“It just seems to be the right program for the moment,” he added.
SYMPHONY 360
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 23
Where: Century II convention hall, 225 W. Douglas
Tickets: $40-$80, at wichitasymphony.org or the symphony box office, 267-7658
