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Windsor Symphony Orchestra conductor John Morris Russell and Detroit jazz singer Shahida Nurullah team up for an impromptu sing-song photo session last week on the riverfront.
Photograph by: Scott Webster, The Windsor Star, The Windsor Star
Russell's number is 9
Numerical theme this WSO season
BY TED SHAW, THE WINDSOR STAR
September 26, 2009
John Morris Russell has history on his side as he enters his ninth season on the podium of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.
There is a mystical connection between classical music and the numeral nine. Beethoven, Schubert and Dvorak all expressed their final and ultimate musical statements with their ninth symphonies.
This season, Russell will lead the Windsor Symphony Orchestra performing Schubert's Ninth, also dubbed The Great, at its opening classical series concert on Oct. 3.
And next season, to celebrate his 10th anniversary in Windsor, he will conduct the mighty Beethoven Ninth, the Ode to Joy.
But that's then and this is now, and Russell is investing his energy in what may be the ultimate expression of his nine years in Windsor.
He sees it that way, at least.
"We have put together a season that matches up Windsor with nine of her sister cities around the world," Russell said this week in preparation for today's opener of the 2009-10 season at the Chrysler Theatre.
Talk about getting dressed to the nines, here's a combination for numerologists to ponder: Russell's ninth season of nine concert programs for nine cities gets its start in the ninth month of 2009.
Time will tell if it's a lucky combination.
Russell and his orchestra will take listeners on a world tour without leaving the intimate surroundings of the Chrysler Theatre, Assumption University Chapel and other locations in the community.
He is calling the season Connections, and he has worked closely with the city's International Relations Committee in forging cultural and, hopefully, closer economic links with communities in other countries.
The concerts are designed to tighten bonds between Windsor and the other cities -- Saltillo, Mexico; Udine, Italy; Coventry, England; Changchun, China; Mannheim, Germany; Granby, Quebec; London, England; Saint-Etienne, France; and Lublin, Poland.
"Our relationship with these cities is built on commerce and culture," Russell said. "If it's true that music is the universal language, we're going to find out if we can help."
While tributes will be exchanged between Mayor Eddie Francis and his counterparts in those cities, and local cultural groups will be invited to participate, Russell isn't stopping there.
He is in the planning stages to have delegations from the communities visit Windsor when the concerts are performed.
"It has worked before," he said. "When the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra did a cultural tour of the Far East, half the plane was filled with musicians and the other half was filled with delegations from the Ohio business community."
The cultural and educational links Russell has tried to forge in his time here are moving to another level.
"The idea is to look outward to the rest of the world while we look inward at what we have in our community," he said.
Each of the WSO's major pops and classical concerts will have a multicultural focus.
The opening pops concerts today and Sunday look no further than across the Detroit River in a program titled The American Songbook. The first classics concert on Oct. 3, Rhythm of the World, is a nod to the Far East and Indonesia.
At the end of October, the orchestra pays tribute to Saltillo, Mexico, in a program he calls Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the annual religious celebrations in Latin America.
"I just found out the Mexican consul general in this area is from Saltillo, so I expect that concert will be a big hit with the Mexican community."
He's hoping to attract some of the more than 5,000 Mexican migrant workers who flock to Essex County fields and greenhouses every year.
A series of concerts in Windsor, Leamington and Tecumseh in November will pay tribute to the Italian cities of Udine and Frosinone, sisters to Windsor and the town of Tecumseh. Those concerts will feature performances of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.
Coventry, England, will be acknowledged in concerts with a holiday theme on Dec. 12 and 13. The performances will include a screening of Dianne Jackson's acclaimed 1982 animated film, The Snowman, which was originally produced for Britain's Channel 4.
Concerts in the new year will honour sister cities in China, Germany, Quebec, France and Poland.
"One of the great things about living here is the diversity," he said.
"There are so many cultural groups who have enriched our community. Our relationship with them is an area we want to continue to explore."
By reaching out to such groups, Russell hopes to expand the potential audience for the WSO.
"Those who feel the symphonic experience is not for them have not yet experienced the Windsor Symphony Orchestra."
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