The Mason Orchestral Society is marking the end of its 50th season with a concert on Sunday.
With Master’s and doctorate degrees from the Michigan State University College of Music, conductor David Schultz leads the Mason Symphony Orchestra, along with others in Brighton and in Dexter, where he lives. He also plays viola with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and in local string quartets.
Schultz says some community orchestras hire professional musicians, creating hybrid ensembles with unpaid volunteer players. His goal is to maintain the organizations he works with as places for talented local players.
“I feel very strongly that these orchestras are a place for community members, adult amateurs, not even just adults, some students we have as well, but people who want to play, that have a place to play.”
To Schultz, Mason’s orchestra is special for having navigated fifty years of challenges, like leadership successions and the pandemic. There are currently about 60 musicians in the ensemble.
Along with the orchestra, the Mason Orchestral Society also supports the Mason Philharmonic, a teaching orchestra for beginning players. Together, they are the only non-professional, community orchestras in the mid-Michigan area that perform a full concert season.
Schultz says he often hears from first-time concert attendees that they hadn’t been aware their towns had their own classical music ensembles.
He adds community orchestras like Mason’s have to work hard to get the attention he thinks they deserve.
“They don’t have quite the caliber of Lansing, certainly not Detroit or anything of that nature,” he conceded. “It’s a different sort of ensemble, but I think that we put in really good work. We rely on a lot of word of mouth.”
The concert on Sunday will kick off with the Mason Philharmonic, directed by Dilek Engin Stolarchuk, playing a few selections.
The orchestra’s program will be made up of short works that will allow for remarks from people like Sandra Gerrish, who founded the society back in the 1970s. The music will be celebratory with a focus on pieces reflecting their educational roots.
For Schultz, Elgar’s "Pomp and Circumstance March" is an obvious choice.
“If anyone has been at a graduation in the last century or so,” he laughed, “They will have heard that music.”
Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" will also be on the program as will a piece by Lansing-based composer Michael Goodman.
Goodman, an MSU College of Music graduate, will be at the concert to hear the premiere of "Fluctuation." It’s a transcription of a work originally written for concert band.
Since the date for the Sunday concert is May the 4th, Schultz also couldn’t resist including music composed by John Williams for the "Star Wars" movies.
Sunday’s concert marking 50 years of the Mason Orchestral Society will be at MacDonald Middle School in East Lansing starting at 3 p.m.
