Dear NSO Friend:
I'm a lucky guy. This is my 32nd season playing trombone with the NSO. That represents about 190 performances and over 500 masterpieces. My soul, which has been both soothed and excited by all this music, is in much better shape than it would have been without this experience.
The NSO is fortunate to be in the greater Newton area, whose residents have provided the musicians and audience to sustain us for 38 seasons. We have talented volunteers behind these music stands, and appreciative supporters in the seats out front.
Newton is fortunate to have the NSO. We provide high quality music in a convenient venue at affordable prices. We reach out to involve the community's schoolchildren with our free Family Concert, which features student ensembles and soloists playing with our orchestra. We have discount prices for students and seniors, whom we also invite to our open dress rehearsals. NewTV extends our reach with Barbara Brilliant's Conversations with the Conductor and taped broadcasts of our concerts. In May 2001, the NSO received the Newton Mayor's Medallion Award for Community Service.
In 1999-2000 we commissioned Leon Biriotti's Sinfonia da Requiem: In Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, and our performance of it earned us the Improper Bostonian's designation of "Best Classical Music Performance of the Year." In 2000-2001 we got rave reviews for our sold out debut in New York's Lincoln Center, and we followed up the next year by performing at Carnegie Hall! This year we will again present a full-length concert opera, Puccini's La Bohème. Jeffrey Rink, is from the front ranks of the greater Boston music community and appears as a guest conductor around the world.
As you know, the vitality of a community rests on the strength of its volunteer organizations. Newton's Mayor David Cohen says, "The NSO enriches our city!" State Senator Cynthia Creem exclaims, "As a subscriber, and a music lover, I am always delighted by the NSO!" President of Newton's Board of Aldermen, Brooke Lipsitt, says, "Newton and Boston are so much the livelier because of the music of the NSO. I'm happy to be a subscriber and proud to be a member of its Board."
Our efforts and excellence do involve substantial costs well in excess of our ticket revenue, even with volunteer musicians. We do need your continued support, and would welcome donations of time and money. If you would like to help with our activities, call our office at 617-965-2555. If you can contribute money, please use the reply envelope inserted in your program or mail your check to our business office at 230 Central Street, Newton, MA 02466.
Thank you for being with us. Enjoy the music!
Sincerely,
President (and trombonist for 31 years)
If you'd like to support the Newton Symphony Orchestra, please print and then return a completed NSO38 Annual Fund reply card (the PDF file requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader) with your donation.
