The San Antonio Symphony Orchestra welcomed its new music director, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, with a sold-out gala performance on October 2nd, 2010. A champagne toast followed the concert at the 2,311-seat Majestic Theater. Delegate Emily Freudigman reports that the Majestic will remain home to the SAS until the opening of the Tobin Center for the Arts, scheduled for 2013. The orchestra was joined for the gala concert by the San Antonio Mastersingers and the San Antonio Children’s Chorus. The choirs were embedded in the audience to facilitate a seamless transition from the last note of the Mastersingers’ unaccompanied set into the opening of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, as well as to give the audience a good look at the new music director in action.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has just appointed a new executive producer of digital media, Matt Thueson. Before coming to SPCO , Thueson spent nearly 10 years with Minnesota Public Radio where he worked with many aspects of the network’s extensive digital media offerings, including producing numerous large news and music websites, and adapting online efforts to new platforms such as Facebook, Apple’s iPad, mobile browsers, and podcasts. He will work with SPCO to help build its online archive of streamed music, as well as to create a mobile app that will allow people to stream this music on their iPhones and other mobile devices. The executive producer of digital media position is made possible by a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The four-year grant provides developmental capital for artistic and digital media initiatives.

Chairperson Bruce Ridge, President Brian Rood, and Secretary Laura Ross marched in Detroit’s Labor Day Parade with and in support of Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians. Also in attendance were AFM President Ray Hair and ICSOM Chairman Emeritus Robert Levine, ROPA President Carla Lehmeier-Tatum, and Local 5 President Gordon Stump. DSO musicians walked at the very head of the parade, and Detroit Symphony ICSOM delegate Dave Everson performed with some of his DSO colleagues in front of Orchestra Hall.

Ray Hair (left), Robert Levine, and Carla Lehmeier-Tatum support DSO musicians at the Labor Day Parade in Detroit on September 6, 2010.
Photo credit: Laura Ross