Seeking perfect pitch
New symphony director aims high for Newport ensemble
Story and photo by Eliot Sekuler
For the TODAY
With a new executive director bringing fresh ideas and an ambitious agenda, the Newport Symphony Orchestra is entering a new era.
Founded in 1989, the symphony has flourished under the musical direction of highly regarded conductor Adam Flatt, who has led the ensemble since 2007. The orchestra’s new executive director, Dan Howard, will oversee fund-raising, marketing and community engagement while working with Flatt to shape the programming.
“I’m very ambitious,” Howard said. “I aim high.”
Tall, buoyant and informal, with a disarming smile and rapid-fire way of speaking, Howard spells out his ideas for improving the orchestra’s musical quality and expanding its audience, including establishing a signature Newport Symphony “sound.”
“People talk about the `sound’ of orchestras,” he said, referring to the trademark style of some orchestras, shaped through the direction of their conductors by a variety of choices those conductors make in the seating arrangements, in the way the string musicians are instructed to bow their instruments, in phrasing and simply through the musicians’ frequent interaction.
“The more an ensemble plays together, the more they develop a `sound.’ There is a ‘Newport sound’ now, but we don’t play together enough for it to be immediately obvious to other people.”
Currently, the orchestra performs five programs, each with two performances, at the 328-seat Newport Performing Arts Center. It also presents a free Independence Day concert at Newport Middle School, which accommodates 900, and the “Chamber Music on the Bayfront” series in the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center’s intimate Doerfler Family Theater.
“Right now, we’re doing two or three chamber concerts each season,” Howard said. “I’d like us to do four or maybe five of them.”
Another key priority for Howard is the expansion of the audience base by increasing the appeal of the ensemble to younger audiences and to a broader public.
“We need to find a way to tell the story of this music in such a way that it gets out into the community,” he said. “I think people will respond to the stories that the music has to tell if we can tell the story in a way that humanizes it, makes it more accessible and lets our community know that the music is not unapproachable. It’s not a stuck-up art form.”
Howard is especially enthused about youth outreach and its potential for drawing young people into the orchestra’s audience.
“We got a very generous grant recently that will fund musicians in the classroom,” he said. “We’re going to take a trio of musicians and send them to every kindergarten through second grade classroom in Lincoln County. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to get it right, but it’s going to be an effort that’s well worth it.”
Howard arrived at the Newport Symphony Orchestra with leadership experience at the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado, and as vice president and general manager of the Boise Philharmonic. He also spent 10 years teaching music in the Boise public school system and has worked as a professional trombonist in orchestras and touring musical theater productions.
“I understand what it’s like to sit on the stage,” he said. “I understand what it’s like to play for an audience. I know how the energy of the audience affects their performance, how the quality of their fellow musicians really matters to them. And I know how important it is for the musicians to be able to just show up and make music without worrying about little things: a wobbly music stand, how they’re going to be fed, how the lights get turned on and off. If they’re worried about those things, then I haven’t done my job correctly. I want them to feel good about coming here. Adam Flatt is going to program the music they love to play, and I’m going to make sure they have a great time doing it.”
For more information on the Newport Symphony Orchestra and to purchase tickets, go to newportsymphony.org or call 541-265-2787.
Holiday Concert
Join the Newport Symphony Orchestra for the annual Concert by Candlelight, "Baroque and Beyond for the Holidays” on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Hear the orchestra bring Baroque masters like Handel and Bach to life along with a dash of your favorite holiday tunes arranged by local composer Dave Robertson. Principal Flutist, Erin Adair, and Principal Violist, Shauna Keyes, will perform “Concertino for Flute and Viola,” which world-renowned composer Ernest Bloch wrote while living in Agate Beach.
The concerts will be presented at 2 pm and 7:30 pm at the Newport Performing Arts Center, located at 777 W Olive Street. For more information, go to coastarts.org or call 541-265-2787.