Anchorage Symphony Orchestra: local musicians 'play on' to make anchorage a world-class stage.

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Corporate 100

The Anchorage Symphony Orchestra was first formed in 1946--before Alaska was even a state--when 17 local musicians started meeting on a weekly basis to play music. Today, the ASO is a group of 80 professional musicians. Headed by conductor Randall Craig Fleisher, the ASO is noteworthy not only for its crowd-pleasing performances, but also for some exciting innovations that distinguish ASO as a world-class and inventive orchestra.

According to board member Dr. George Rhyneer, "This orchestra, in addition to putting on really fantastic performances, has a very imaginative orchestra leader conductor who helps the symphony do novel things. Not only in the programs, but in expanding the symphony and the community's participation in the international and national music scene."

One of the ways that ASO stays current and pulis in a larger fan base is through collaborative projects, pulling in supporters and co-participants through various channels in the community.

Musica Nova

Fleischer has been the conductor of the ASO for 14 years. Sherri Burkhart Reddick, the executive director, muses about the earlier years of Fleisher's service, and the idea that took the ASO in a new and interesting direction.

"Early on," Reddick says, "there was the interest in 'How do we bring the voice or our time into this body of work? How do we create a repertoire-we can play things from the 1890s, in the 1990s--but how do we get into this new millennium, and how do we add our voice to it?'"

One of the ways that ASO directly involves the community in the creative process is through a program called Musica Nova, a club that pools its money to commission original pieces of classical music by modern symphony composers. As the name suggests, the program synthesizes the classic elements of a symphony orchestra with a composer who will make an original piece, binding current and classic together to keep symphony music fresh and new. The club has been operating since 2003.

"Over the years, we've had local and national composers write pieces just for the Anchorage Symphony," Rhyneer says. "Sometimes we've sponsored a piece all by ourselves, and sometimes we've gone together with several other symphony orchestras around the country to pool our resources and allow for a larger piece to be put together."

"Some of these pieces don't become national best-sellers," Rhyneer says, "but others actually have!"

One of ASO's commissioned composers is Chris Brubeck, son of Dave Brubeck, and...