Maine News Updates

PORTLAND -- Against a backdrop of financial stress, the Portland Symphony Orchestra unveiled its 2009-10 season today, highlighted by a guest appearance by mandolin prodigy Chris Thile, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and the funk band Motor Booty Affair.

Robert Moody, the orchestra’s music director and conductor, described the season as adventurous and bold, mixing classical masterworks such as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, also known as “Resurrection,” with a brand new mandolin concerto written and performed by Thile.

The orchestra co-commissioned the piece, which Thile is still in the process of writing. Thile, best known for his work with the modern bluegrass band Nickel Creek, will join the orchestra on March 28, 2010, to perform the piece.

Another highlight of the season includes a performance on April 6, 2010, by Glennie, a virtuoso percussionist from Scotland who is profoundly deaf. She often performs barefoot so she can feel an orchestra’s music through the floor.

On April 24-25, the Portland-based funk band Motor Booty Affair will join the PSO for a Pops concert paying tribute to the Bee Gees, Abba, Barry Manilow and other 1970s-era artists. Noting that he hoped the audience would join him in dancing The Hustle, Moody said he planned to wear his white leisure suit for the concert.

Along with other arts organizations and orchestras across the country, the PSO is struggling financially in the current economic recession. Its endowment eroded, the orchestra is in the process of trying to fill a budget gap for the current fiscal year, and is contemplating a budget for the 2009-10 season that will be less than its current $2.8 million budget.

Moody said his programming decisions reflect the new economic realities. For instance, the orchestra will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 twice as part of its Sunday Classical concert series on May 2, 2010, and again as a Tuesday Classical concert on May 4. By repeating the program, the orchestra saves money by reducing rehearsal times and also in its guest-artist fees.

It costs less to hire one artist to perform two concerts than it would to hire two different guests, Moody said.

Lisa Saffer, a soprano who performs around the world and lives in Portland, will be one of the guests for the Mahler piece, along with mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips and the Masterworks Chorus of the Choral Art Society.

“In this particular year, in this particular time, it becomes more interesting (to program the season),” Moody said. “Not more difficult, but more interesting.”

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