ALLENTOWN, Pa. — It's a big year for the Allentown Symphony — and not just because of the booming "Da-da-da-dummm" of this weekend's performance of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
This season celebrates both the 125th anniversary of Miller Symphony Hall, the symphony's home, and Music Director and Conductor Diane Wittry's 30th season since joining the Symphony Orchestra in 1995.
It's a varied and vibrant season ahead for Miller Symphony Hall, with highlights of Gershwin, Louis Armstrong, Mahler, Copland, William Grant, John Williams, Tchaikovsky and Billy Joel, among other sounds.
This weekend kicks off with perhaps the best-known symphonies in classical music — Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
It will be the first time the orchestra has played the symphony in 10 years.
"Excitement is certainly in the air," said Al Jacobsen, executive director of Allentown Symphony Association.
Miller Symphony Hall, originally named the Lyric Theatre, opened in 1899 after a renovation transformed the former indoor market at the building.
Jacobsen said Miller Symphony Hall is the last remaining historic theater in downtown Allentown and among just two in the city.
"When you look at that age, I know myself I feel very much like we are a steward of something very precious to this region," Jacobsen said.
"This building was here long before any of us, and we hope it will be here for many years to come. So it's important for us currently as stewards of it, to celebrate it, to continue to run it, and have programming and look ahead to the next 125."
Dedication, growth kept Wittry here
In the lead-up to the start of her 30th season, Wittry reflected on how when she started, she doubled up at times with orchestras in Texas, Connecticut and New Jersey while also teaching, composing and writing.
But throughout that time, gravity guided her toward Allentown, she said.
There, she said, she has been able to expand not only the skill and repertoire of what was played but also the extent of what the orchestra has been able to do with its art.
"I have a lot of ideas of sort of changing the concert experience, adding multimedia, dancers, actors," she said.
"And the board really engage in these types of new activities and allowed us to really grow."
She said that if the orchestra has not been growing, she "would have left years ago."
But the growth in artistic quality, ability of players and repertoire, along with the growth of the organization as a whole and how it serves the community, has excited her year after year.
She said half the orchestra has played with it for more than 20 years, and noted a similar longevity of involvement in the board.
"The orchestra has consistently gotten better and better and better, and I would often go guest conduct elsewhere, and the orchestra just wouldn't be as good."Allentown Symphony Music Director and Conductor Diane Wittry
"The orchestra has consistently gotten better and better and better, and I would often go guest conduct elsewhere, and the orchestra just wouldn't be as good," Wittry said.
She highlighted access to great artists locally, as well as from nearby metros such as Philadelphia and New York and even farther, such as the Washington, D.C., and Boston areas, who participate.
"There's a great commitment to this orchestra," she said.
'Really accomplished that'
Wittry said her core mission is to bring orchestral music to people in new and different ways, ultimately with the hope of changing their lives for the better.
During her time, she said, the orchestra has been able to do that in many ways beyond just the performances via its Conducting Fellows Program, the Symphony Chorus and new music programs, the immersive El Sistema after-school program, Schadt National String competition and other programming throughout the year
"One of my goals has been to really put the Allentown Symphony on the map nationally," Wittry said. "I think we've really accomplished that."
She said her favorite moments in her career with the orchestra include the Ode to Joy Fanfare and the Joe Jaxson piece world premiere at the recent concert of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, the opera performances of Perget and Carmen and hearing from audience members that the final movement of Mahler's 2nd symphony brought them to tears.
Symphony on ice also was a highlight, and she said she hopes the videos of those performances can be brought back out to experience again.
Raising money to remodel the hall and professionalize the full orchestra also was a proud accomplishment that she noted during her time.
Wittry said all while she prepares for this year's season and celebrations, planning also is going on for next year's season, which will be the 75th anniversary season of Allentown Symphony Orchestra.
Ball, other events to celebrate
Jacobsen said the main celebration of the 125th anniversary will be this year's Symphony Ball fundraiser on Saturday, Sept. 28, which will have an 1899 throwback with a Gilded Age theme.
Jacobsen said a book is being worked on highlighting the history of the Allentown Symphony Organization, which has owned Miller Symphony Hall since 1959.
He said the history of the hall is a large part of the symphony's history, and the book will include photos and documentation of the history, and spotlight famous performers who have been in the hall.
"We are about looking ahead and being in the present with what we do, orchestras are very dynamic institutions, whatever public perception may exist about that is simply not true," Jacobsen said.
75th season next year
This weekend's performances are set to take place at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
In addition to the Beethoven Symphony, a Trumpet Concerto by Alexander Arutiunian, Astor Piazzolla's Libertango will be performed.
Tine Thing Helseth, who Wittry said is a world class trumpet player from Oslo, will perform the solo on the concerto.
The concert will open with a piece by Emilie Mayer, who Wittry said is a lesser-known composer deeply inspired by Beethoven's work she wishes to elevate.
A "Meet the Artist" event also will take place at the symphony hall at noon Friday for a talk about the music by Wittry and a performance of selections by Thing Helseth.
Tickets can be purchased on the Miller Symphony Hall website.
The following event for the orchestra will be its ”A Sousa Band Concert” with the Allentown Band playing the music of famed composer and conductor John Philip Sousa.
It will be at 3 p.m. Oct. 13, at Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. Sixth St.
As part of the performance, the first sousaphone ever made will be displayed at the concert.
