| Steven Uhles: Hello, my name is Steven Uhles and I would like to welcome you to what we hope will be the first of many online chats presented by the Augusta Chronicle. Today we are talking to Ryan Kho, concertmaster with the Augusta Symphony. We have 30 minutes today and although time is relatively short, we would love to have questions and comments from any readers that might have logged in. Hopefully Mr. Kho is online with us right now. Welcome Ryan. |
| ryankho: I am online Steven..It is good to be here. This is quite new to me! Good to write to you. |
| Steven Uhles: Good to have you. Here's a question I prepared earlier, just to get the ball rolling. A new conductor is going to mean a lot of things to a lot of people. The audience will want one thing, the community as a whole another. The board will certainly have expectations. What would you, as both a musician and a music professional who will work closely with him or her, like to see in the new conductor? |
| ryankho: A professional orchestra is a family of well trained professionals. What we try to look for is someone to combine all of our talents for a common goal. This is someone who will be able to invite us to make music together as a unit and help make this possible with their baton technique and inspiration. |
| cthrelkeld: Is the position of regional interest, or has it drawn applicants from around the world?) |
| ryankho: This position has drawn applicants from all over the world. We have candidates from Europe,Japan,Canada,just to name afew. |
| EuroAmerican: Do you play any Wagner? |
| Steven Uhles: Has the process of this transition from Maestro Portnoy to the player-to-be-named later been a case of equal parts anticipation and dread? I would imagine there are elements of both sadness and excitement involved. |
| ryankho: We have played Wagner. We have not played a lot of Wagner as the orchestra required for this compser usually encompasses a large orchestra. It would be expensive to do, but given the right sponser this would possible. Any takers? |
| Steven Uhles: I for one would love to see the Augusta Symphony get its Wagner on. |
| Steven Uhles: Not that I can write that check, of course. |
| ryankho: There is indeed sadness as Maestro Portnoy has done amazing things for this orchestra. For me personally it has been a great association. To have a conductor that plays the violin as well is very helpful. Maestro's experience is something that will be hard to equal. At the same time the challenge of finding someone is exciting as it is always interesting to play under someone new. |
| ryankho: Well, Steven it was worth a shot!(for the check) :) |
| cthrelkeld: Does Maestro Portnoy plan to celebrate his final season by performing some of his favorites, or is he planning to break new artistic ground? |
| ryankho: The maestro has invited a few of his favorite soloists he has worked with in the past years to help celebrate his last concerts with us. This will take place on the last 2 masterworks of the season. We welcome you to go to the website for more details. It should be a great party. Spread the word. |
| voluptuously_auburn: Have you ever considered performing a collaboration effort with area local bands and performers??? |
| ryankho: He will also be programming some of his favorite repertoire as well. |
| ryankho: In fact we have collaborated in the past with local performers. We have had Dr. Martin David Jones (Professor of piano at Augusta State) as a iano soloist and many other collabotrations. The symphony places high priority on local community involvement with the orchestra. Collaborating with bands can cause difficulty only because selecting the appropriate repertoire would be a challenge. Not impossible....but difficult. |
| chi chi: Of the Pops series, who has been your favorite star to perform with? |
| ryankho: Thus far, I have to say our recent performance with the Cirque de Symphonie was tremendous! |
| Steven Uhles: That was a good one. |
| Steven Uhles: Ryan, I know you have a rehearsal to get to this afternoon so we will wrap it up. I want to thank everyone that participate and encourage everyone to keep an eye open for more of these chats. It was fun Ryan. Thank you. |
| ryankho: Thank you Steven! It was fun. I will have to practice my typing skills before we do this again so my apologies for typos etc... Thank and please come and support a great symphony orchestra in Augusta!! |
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