There’s just something about hearing — and seeing — a performance in the majestic Mount Baker Theatre. The ornate space is plush, brimming with history…yet also casual and welcoming in that quintessential Bellingham way.
BSO is the resident orchestra of Mount Baker Theatre and boasts top-tier local musicians tackling challenging repertoire, draws celebrated national and international soloists, and enjoys devoted community support.
On the day of any performance — seven concerts take place throughout fall, winter, and spring in a typical BSO season — you’ll find folks dressed to the nines mingling with others in casual attire.
Many of the old symphony “rules,” such as no clapping except after last movement, have evolved with the times, and BSO continues to see a wider variety of attendees of all ages at its performances.
For longtime symphony-goers to curious first-time audience members, the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra offers traditional works by well-known composers and adventurous pieces by contemporary artists, all performed by incredibly talented local musicians.
A Growing Symphony
The Bellingham Symphony Orchestra kicks off its 2024/2025 season this September — its eleventh with Maestro Yaniv Attar.
Garland Richmond has been a Bellingham Symphony Orchestra board member for seven years and says the symphony has soared to a professional level since Attar became artistic director and conductor in July 2013.
Richmond looks forward to the 2024/2025 season and “Maestro Attar’s inclusion of newer music, and “repertory that pushes the envelope.”
Gena Mikkelsen — board member, BSO treasurer and director of finance, and the symphony’s principal piccolo player and assistant principal flute for 10 years — agrees.
“When I first joined,” Mikkelsen says, “we were a community orchestra largely run by volunteers. Since Maestro Attar and Executive Director Gail Ridenour came on board, we’ve transformed into a powerhouse symphony.”
This season marks the 10th anniversary of BSO launching its Harmony From Discord series — a celebration of music that has survived oppression that strives to bring lost compositions back into the light.?
Maestra Attar, a native of Israel and trained at Juilliard, has watched BSO’s progression with excitement and pride. “The symphony has grown tremendously over the years I’ve been here,” he says. “We’ve welcomed many new members. We strive for excellence and, through very hard work, deliver even better programs every year at a higher level.”
The 2024/2025 Season
What can audience members expect for the upcoming season? It begins on Sunday, September 29 at Mount Baker Theatre, when renowned violinist Philippe Quint joins the orchestra to play Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto. Attar is thrilled to collaborate with Quint.
Also part of the season’s opening program is Grammy award-winning Jessie Montgomery’s “Banner,” an exploration of our national anthem alongside the Tchaikovsky “Violin Concerto” and Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite,” which was famously used in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia 2000.”
Gail Ridenour, who’s been BSO’s executive director for six-and-a-half years and co-principal oboe for nine, loves the blend of compositions throughout the upcoming season.
“It combines traditional works by composers like Mozart and Beethoven with contemporary composers creating powerful pieces,” she says. “We pair John Williams’ theme from ‘Jaws’ with Debussy’s ‘La Mer’ on March 28, and Williams’ ‘Cowboy Overture’ with Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring” on November 24.’
Attar loves to throw an unusual instrument into a season when he can, and this year it’s mandolin, also part of the November 24th concert. The BSO will perform a bluegrass concerto for mandolin and orchestra composed by Jeff Midkiff, who will join the musicians on stage.
For details on each 2024/2025 concert, visit BSO event’s page.
Harmony From Discord
Ridenour is particularly proud of what Yaniv and BSO have created with the Harmony From Discord series.
“Our Harmony From Discord series was groundbreaking,” she says, “and the only one like it when it began with Yaniv.”
Ridenour and Attar worked together with a common vision to allow the series to grow. “We started expanding the series in 2019 to include works by composers who are underrepresented,” says Ridenour. “Now it weaves seamlessly throughout our season; our concerts have themes that run through them to bring a special spark to each one. Audiences love it.”
Of all the exceptional 2024/2025 concerts, the one Attar is most looking forward to is the April 27 Harmony From Discord concert, which will feature a violin concerto by early 20th century Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans. Her voice was silenced by the rise of the Nazi regime and then, tragically, forgotten. Tchaikovsky competition winner Itamar Zorman will perform her “Concert Piece.”
Rounding out this powerful program is a contemporary piece by Portland, Oregon, composer Kenji Bunch called “Supermaximum,” inspired by the rich tradition of chain gang songs from the prison camps of the Jim Crow South.
“Stemming from a long and painful past with roots originating in West African work song through generations of enduring slavery and post-Reconstruction racial terrorism,” Attar says, “this body of work serves as a singular example of a group of oppressed people resorting to, of all things, art for spiritual and, at times, physical survival under the most needlessly cruel of circumstances.”
The word “Supermaximum” refers to the highest possible level of security for incarceration in America. Attar imagined this work “as a presence of compassion offered in direct proportion to counter this cruelty, specifically the defiant rediscovery and celebration of one’s own humanity in the face of the entity that seeks to remove and deny it.”
The April Harmony From Discord program closes with Fauré’s “Requiem,” and is a collaboration with two choirs — Bellingham Chamber Chorale and The Phoenix Chamber Choir from Vancouver, B.C. — joined by two local soloists, soprano Heather Dudenbostel and baritone Richard Hodges.
‘It Feels Like a Family’
For Ridenour, the thing that brings her the most joy about being a part of the symphony is making music together. “It feels like a family,” she says. “We all genuinely care about each other.”
And this extends to the audiences.
“As your community orchestra, we have connections from the stage to the back of the hall and beyond,” Ridenour says. “Many people in our audiences choose their seats so they can see and hear the musician on the stage that’s their friend or family member. It’s really something special.”
It’s not unusual to hear audience members exclaim about being moved after a BSO performance — and this is not lost on Attar, Ridenour, and each dedicated musician on the Mount Baker Theatre stage.
“The orchestra continues to grow and strive through adventurous programming,” Attar says with a smile, “and our audience recognizes it and loves it!”
Concerts begin at 3 p.m. at Mount Baker Theatre, 104 N. Commercial St. For details, visit www.bellinghamsymphony.org or call the theater box office, 360.734.6080.
