Civic supporters and symphony fans were one in the same when the Cascade Symphony Orchestra performed a salute to Edmonds at Benaroya Hall on May 23.
Nearly 1,400 people ranging from elected officials to grade-schoolers flocked to the home of the Seattle Symphony for “In Celebration of Edmonds” presented by the 90-member volunteer orchestra based in Snohomish County.
Among the public officials introduced during the evening were Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson and Snohomish County Council chair Gary Nelson.
The audience also recognized with warm applause the contributions of Cascade Symphony founder/conductor emeritus Robert Anderson and that of Patrick Reagan, owner/broker of RE/MAX Metro Properties, concert sponsor.
The nearly two-hour evening of patriotic pageantry and compositions by American, French and Russian composers was a benefit for the Edmonds Center for the Arts, which will receive 25 percent of ticket sales.
The arts center will be the new home of the 44-year-old symphony that’s composed of musicians who make music by night and by day are architects, teachers, software developers and students.
The first phase of construction on the arts center – the former campus of Puget Sound Christian College in downtown Edmonds – is to begin this summer and finish in the fall of 2006.
The actual donation to the Edmonds Center for the Arts has yet to be calculated, said Don Gray, a board member of both the Seattle and Cascade symphonies and event organizer.
Benaroya staff, Gray added with obvious delight, expressed amazement so many people would pay up to $30 to attend a Monday night performance at Benaroya of an orchestra other than the resident symphony.
The audience filled about three-quarters of the Mark Taper Auditorium within the internationally acclaimed hall. It was an enthusiastic bunch that applauded with equal exuberance presentation of the colors by members of U.S. armed forces and guest-pianist Mark Salman’s dizzying execution of Camille Saint-Saens’ Concerto No. 2 for piano and orchestra in G minor, Op. 22.
Topping sales charts in the lobby after the performance were symphony CDs autographed by Michael Miropolsky, Cascade Symphony’s music director/conductor who also occupies the assistant principal second violin chair for the Seattle Symphony.
Many audience members were first-time visitors to the symphony hall and spent the intermission oohing and aahing over the spare elegance of the upper-tier boxes, exotic veneered walls and artwork.
Acoustics so refined you can hear the proverbial pin drop on stage weren’t lost on viola player Jordana Nesvog of Edmonds.
Although the 20-year-old criminal-justice major at the University of Washington has played Benaroya Hall previously as part of the Cascade Youth Symphony, she remains amazed at how sound carries there.
She recalled that her reaction to her first visit to the Mark Taper stage was, “Holy cow, I’d better practice!”
Among the devoted music fans at the concert was Roberta McKee, a retired Edmonds schoolteacher who has been attending Cascade Symphony performances for 40 years.
Asked why she would take the trouble to head to downtown Seattle when she can hear the symphony closer to home, she answered: “Why, it’s for Edmonds, of course!”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
