Playing a New Tune with the Traverse Symphony Orchestra

TSO takes on new home, ensembles, and education program in its 71st year

By Ross Boissoneau | Oct. 7, 2023

It’s a season of change for the Traverse Symphony Orchestra (TSO).

First and foremost, the organization will soon be moving from Radio Centre in downtown TC to the former Kmart building at the Cherryland Center, leasing space from the Traverse City Curling Club. “It is super cool to be using existing repurposed space,” says Maestro Kevin Rhodes, the orchestra’s music director and conductor. The hope is the move will be sometime in spring of next year, depending on how construction goes.

That is where TSO will be launching its new Community Music School, serving students of all ages with a variety of musical classes and programming. TSO will also be creating new musical organizations alongside the symphony and the Traverse Symphony Jazz Orchestra, including a Youth Orchestra and Senior Band. On top of that, it has absorbed the Encore Symphonic Winds as another facet of the organization.

With all that newness, it’s important to remember this is an organization that has been a cornerstone of community culture for 70-some years.

“What’s great is we’re in our 71st year. That’s something, particularly in a small town, a small community,” says Rhodes.

Hitting the High Notes

It’s no small feat for musical titans like the New York Philharmonic or Boston Symphony to thrive across the decades, as those are longstanding musical institutions in densely-populated urban centers. By contrast, the TSO is a regional orchestra far from a large population center.

What the region does offer is a rich cultural scene, which has drawn musicians of all stripes. The influence of Interlochen Center for the Arts is obvious, with many of the orchestra’s members working there, while others boast music-related positions as faculty and staff members from nearby schools and Northwestern Michigan College. Some members of the orchestra travel from Midland, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Ann Arbor to perform.

It adds up to an ensemble with professionalism and polish beyond what one might expect in a town the size of Traverse City. That reputation extends far beyond this area. “Guest soloists have played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra—they’re astounded when they step on stage for the first rehearsal,” Rhodes says.

This season Rhodes is celebrating his 19th anniversary season as music director with the TSO, as well as the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts, and his 10th season as principal conductor of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra in Boston. He remains active in Europe as well, with ongoing relationships with the Opera Houses of Vienna, Milan, and Oslo.

“I started leading when I was 14 and was conducting at 16. It’s what I do, totally a part of my being,” says Rhodes. He believes the varied aspects of his career keep him fresh. “By the time I come back in October, I will have done three projects with different orchestras.”

Jazzy Vibes

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why TSO has stood the test of time, and why they continue to expand and innovate as the years go by.

Take, for example, the Traverse Symphony Jazz Orchestra, which was formed in 2021. It was created to broaden the reach of the TSO, to serve audiences who may have been unaccustomed to a full symphony concert, but who still appreciated live professional music performance. This new ensemble enabled TSO to hold concerts on the smaller City Opera House stage and to create a Saturday evening concert experience in the heart of downtown.

The idea for a symphony orchestra is typically to play the music of the masters: Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, etc. Rhodes wanted to expand on that with the TSJO to include masters such as Ellington, Basie, and the like.

“The idea for this group goes way back for me to when I was in college and we [then-girlfriend, now wife, Jane] would have movie nights with friends from the theater department and watch old Hollywood musicals. And often those movies would feature Harry James and his band, Xavier Cugat and his band, Glen Miller, et cetera. So I always thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to have a group like that?’”

When the world began to reopen amidst the lingering shadow of the pandemic, Rhodes revisited that idea. It made sense at the time to extend and expand TSO’s offerings, as most orchestras have a pops season, in which they play music derived from sources outside the classical canon, such as pop, rock, Broadway, and movies. TSO does not, in large part due to the fact it doesn’t have a home venue, relying primarily on Corson Auditorium at Interlochen. But Corson serves the school and camp with student and professional presentations, limiting its availability.

“We can only get the Corson Auditorium a very limited number of times in the year, which we want to save for our classical concerts. It is very difficult and sound-wise onstage—not so ideal—to work in the other main auditorium, Lars Hockstad, and only about 35 musicians fit on the City Opera House stage,” Rhodes says.

Such a new musical aggregation would also be the perfect vehicle for a collaboration with jazz legend Bob James, who Rhodes had come to know and who had performed with the TSO and with the Tokyo Philharmonic under Rhodes as part of the Tokyo Jazz Festival.

The group debuted in 2021, but Rhodes didn’t stop there.

“When putting our initial programs together, i.e., the pieces we would actually play, I was heavily inspired by the Las Vegas showroom heyday of The Rat Pack, the era from Sinatra to Buddy Rich,” says Rhodes. “So it was clear I wanted singers.”

Thus the Traverse Symphony Jazz Singers came to be alongside the TSJO. “I needed people I know I could work with quickly—we have only two rehearsals for those concerts—and easily,” Rhodes explains. “So that was always part of the idea to have a group of singers who could be with us when the occasion merited, without having to start from scratch each time.”

Connecting with the Community

Each of the new initiatives of the TSO—the TSJO, the Maestro Recital series, the Summer Pops concerts, and the upcoming Community Music School—have been developed to provide new, accessible music opportunities for the community.

Including the Traverse Symphony Jazz Orchestra and Singers and the amateur Encore Symphonic Winds—as well as the upcoming Youth Orchestra and Senior Band—under the TSO umbrella has the potential to not only expand the TSO audience, but also to engender greater enthusiasm for music and the arts in general.

“A lot of our audience has a background in orchestra, choir, etc. That’s reawakened their interest,” Rhodes says.

He adds that’s particularly important given the decline in music programs in schools. “We need to deal with this in the industry,” he says. He sees the TSO Community Music School facility as an important way to bridge those gaps, as it will serve both youngsters and adults.

Preserving the Classics
Despite all of its new endeavors, this is still a musical organization built on a foundation of music from decades—even centuries—gone by. Bach, Brahms and Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and others from classical music’s celebrated past still make up the bulk of the concert programs.

Likewise, for years, there have been stories written about the graying of audiences for classical music, but Rhodes isn’t buying the proposition that the audience is disappearing, or that the form itself is dying.

“By and large, people come to [classical music] at a more mature time of life,” he says. As opposed to rock or rap shows, where an energetic audience will stand and/or dance, he suggests it takes more patience and maturity to sit in an auditorium for two and a half hours and appreciate the efforts of 60 or 70 musicians.

That said, he also sees the more youthful members of the audience enjoying themselves. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm from our younger side.”

Striking that balance between generations is important, that’s where the musical selection comes in. For Rhodes, it’s always about choosing music that will interest the musicians, including any guest performers, and the audience as well. There’s also an educational aspect for both the members of the orchestra and the audience, and Rhodes says he often ties shows together thematically; this year’s programs are primarily geared toward German and Austrian composers.

Though there are still nine shows left in the current season, Rhodes is already working on programming for the 2024-25 season. “I have most of it laid out by January for (shows beginning in) September,” he says.

On the Program

The Oct. 22 TSO concert will feature violinist Yevgeny Kutik performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and his “Violin Concerto.” Rhodes says they are two of the composer’s greatest achievements, describing the symphony as ebullient and one of his sunniest and lightest works. The violin concerto is likewise described as graceful and lyrical, and will feature one of Rhodes’s favorite collaborators.

“Yevgeny and I first met when he was very, very young and I have worked with him regularly for well over 10 years. He’s matured into a masterful artist with whom I can’t wait to play this work,” says Rhodes.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik came to the U.S. with his family at the age of five. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures, features music he found in his family’s suitcase after emigrating from the Soviet Union in 1990. The album debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. He has released three other recordings and performed with orchestras across the country and internationally.

Other upcoming shows will feature pianist Spencer Myer performing Chopin and Debussy; cellist Julian Schwarz with music by Franck, Saint-Saëns, and Debussy; and Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty with the Interlochen Arts Academy Dancers and musicians, directed by Joseph Morrissey.

There are also two concerts featuring the jazz orchestra. “Home For The Holidays – Let It Swing!” will feature seasonal sounds with jazz, big band, swing, and Broadway, with a dollop of classical tunes. “Broadway Spectacular” will showcase songs from musicals on the Great White Way. Both will feature the Traverse Symphony Jazz Singers along with the TSJO.

Most of the TSO’s concerts are held at Corson Auditorium at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Exceptions include the November 11-12 shows with pianist Spencer Myer and the Feb. 17-18 shows with pianist Sara Davis Buechner, which will both be held at the Cathedral Barn at Historic Barn Park on the grounds of the Village at Grand Traverse Commons. The holiday shows will take place at Lars Hockstad Auditorium, and the “Broadway Spectacular” at the City Opera House.