Sunday, October 5, 2008

Symphony magazine much improved

Oregon Symphony's magazine, "In Symphony," has been freshened up with an appealing new look that gives several short glimpses of the conductors and musicians and what they have been doing. I didn't know, for example, that concertmaster Jun Iwasaki had been featured in the September issue of "The Strad" magazine. Also, there's an interview with Latvian violinist Baiba Skride that makes for a nice preview of her debut with the OSO in November. Since practically no print publication in Portland does artists interviews, this is a real smart piece that may help to entice people to hear her play. The program notes by Elizabeth Schwartz seem to be a little shorter, but I especially like the Vital Stats sidebar, because I can find some all sorts of interesting facts very quickly. There's also an article by president Elaine Calder on the last page the summarizes the Symphony's financial picture and points out the increasing tickets sales for this season.

Overall, it seems that the lines of communication from the Symphony are improving. Kudos to Carl Herko and the Symphony's PR team for sprucing up "In Symphony."

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