VALDOSTA, Ga. — This weekend marks the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra’s first concert of the season and the beginning of a new era for the orchestra.

After several years with James Plondke, as conductor and music director, leading the VSO through six concerts per season, the orchestra will have different conductors for each of its five concerts scheduled for the 2007-08 season.

Three of the concerts, including this weekend’s performances, will bring in guest conductors, while Valdosta State University Music faculty will serve as conductors for two other concerts, says Dr. James Shrader, VSU Music director who will also serve as one of the faculty conductors this season and is the VSO’s executive director.

This first season will allow the orchestra to work under various conductors to experience different approaches.

In 2008-09, Shrader says, he hopes to have an audition season for hiring a new conductor for the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. Next season will likely feature a different conductor for each concert with each respective concert serving as each conductor’s audition for the job of VSO conductor.

Shrader says these changes are being implemented to return the VSO to its original concept: Being an academic apparatus of VSU Music and its students, as well as being a community orchestra.

“I’m trying to establish a brand which I have been placing on almost everything connected with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra,” Shrader says. That brand essentially states that the VSO is a joint project of the Valdosta community and VSU as well as an academic entity of the VSU Department of Music.

With the orchestra’s membership comprised primarily of VSU Music faculty and students, as well as additional performers from Valdosta and surrounding towns, the orchestra was originally conceived as an academic arm of VSU Music, Shrader says.

Still, the VSO remains interested in community involvement and support. It retains its board of local individuals, with the board serving in an advisory capacity. In conjunction with the Valdosta Symphony Guild, the orchestra continues its series of youth concerts introducing symphonic music to the region’s school students.

Shrader has also established an informative blog site for the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra (http://valdostasymphonyorchestra.blogspot.com). VSO fans can find updates, interviews and more at the Internet site. There is also much information on this weekend’s first VSO concert of the 2007-08 season.

The first concert is called “America the Beautiful,” with the emphasis placed on songs dedicated to America and the American spirit. The program includes Buck’s “Festival Overture on the American National Air,” Rozsa’s “Prelude and Love Theme from ‘Ben Hur,’” Corigliano’s “Chaconne,” Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” Berlin’s “God Bless America.”

Conducting the concert is guest conductor Mary Woodmansee Green.

For the past decade, Green has served as conductor and music director of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, according to VSO program notes, creating a “regional orchestra of the highest quality which performs with gusto, attention to detail and always in impeccable taste.”

Green will be the first female to lead the VSO in one of its Subscription Series concerts.

Another guest of this performance is violinist Diana Cohen. She will perform with the VSO on Corigliano’s “Chaconne” from “The Red Violin.” Cohen has been described as a virtuoso performer with “incredible flair, maturity and insight.” She was named concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra at the age of 23 and served as such for three seasons, performing as soloist 10 times in works ranging from Mozart to Corigliano. Since, she has become a regular performer in New York and in performances across the globe.

No less than John Corigliano himself has praised Cohen’s performance of his “Red Violin,” describing her as “a radiant artist with a flawless technique. Her personal warmth is evident in every stroke of her bow, and this makes her playing totally unique. Her performance of my suite from ‘The Red Violin’ is magnificent.”





CONCERT

Valdosta Symphony Orchestra opens its 2007-08 season with “America the Beautiful.”

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Whitehead Auditorium, VSU Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood.

Ticket: $20.

Season ticket: $75, includes all five concerts.

More information, reservations: Call VSU College of the Arts Outreach, 333-2150.



THE REST OF THE SEASON

_ “Choral Classics,” 8 p.m., Nov. 17. Paul Neal, conductor; soloists with the Valdosta Symphony Chorus, the VSU Concert Choir. Featured music: Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass,” Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise from “Eugene Onegin,” Brahms’ “Nänie,” Berstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” from “Candide.” Subscription concert.

_ “American Dreams,” 8 p.m., Feb. 9; 2 p.m., Feb. 10 (run-out concert with location to be announced). Lowell Graham, guest conductor; Leon Bates, piano; James Shrader, assistant conductor. Featured music: Creston’s “Dance Overture,” Barber’s 2nd Essay for Orchestra,” Ellington’s “A New World Comin’”, Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm,” Copland’s “Prairie Journal,” Piston’s “The Incredible Flutist,” Gould’s “Symphony No. 2.” Subscription concert.

_ “Opera Overtures, Scenes, and Arias,” 8 p.m., March 29; 3 p.m. March 30. James Shrader, conductor; Finalists from the 2007 Metropolitan Opera Auditions, including tenor Alek Shrader, baritone Nicholas Pallesen. Featured music: Rossini’s Overture and Selections from “The Barber of Seville,” Donizetti’s Overture and Selections from “The Daughter of the Regiment.” Special concert.

_ “Spring Forth,” 8 p.m., April 26. Robert Bode, guest conductor; John O’Conor, piano; Kenneth Kirk, assistant conductor. Featured music: Handel’s “Water Music Suite No. 2,” Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 37,” Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 2 (Little Russian).” Subscription concert.