Northshore Magazine

116nshoremag.com April 2014 Music ne ne chooses pieces from familiar composers, such as Mozart and Beethoven, but also frequently showcases and introduces new, never-performed music, such as the piece "Goyaesques," by contemporary com- poser Timothy Burns, which the orchestra premiered in November 2013. "When we give a concert, we sound damn good," Lehmann says. "It's [due to] an incredible commitment and love for the ensemble." Among the players who love the en- semble is Irene Leamon, a violinist with the orchestra, as well as a member of its board of directors and the personnel man- ager for strings. "It's just this joy to be a part of some- thing huge," she says of the experience of playing with the orchestra. "It's just this wonderful feeling that you want to keep repeating, because your little part contrib- utes to this beautiful sound." Leamon is also galvanized by the orchestra's other long-standing commit- ment: to bring high-quality classical music into the community. For instance, she says that at $15 and $20, the admission prices for the North Shore Philharmonic Orches- tra's concerts—which include the annual fall, winter, and spring concerts at Swamp- scott High School, as well as holiday pops and other community concerts—are much lower than that of other local orchestras. Children under the age of 13, she adds, are admitted for free. "That's the whole point: To make the music accessible and not to have price be a barrier," Leamon says. Marra agrees, saying that beginning with the orchestra's first two directors, Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians Rolland Tapley and Max Hobart, the North Shore Philharmonic has operated "with the stated objective to keep the performances very affordable, so large-scale classical music can be accessible to everybody." Although the orchestra's objectives have stayed the same since the 1940s, times haven't. There's no longer a single community newspaper advertising the orchestra's next concert, and no longer are 800 people filling the audience on a Sun- day afternoon while the stores are closed, Marra says. "The orchestra has changed since then, mostly in our efforts to reach out to the public to attract new audiences," he says. "Attracting an audience and keeping the audience is more of a challenge because there's so many more things to do." Toward that end, the orchestra is busy reaching out to young people and children, not only with free admission and outreach via social media but also with program- ming that allows kids to actually be part of the music. The orchestra has recently partnered with the Marblehead/Salem School of Mu- sic to bring fiddle students, ranging in age from second to seventh grade, to concerts to perform in the lobby before the show. Not only does it give the students a chance to play together, but it also exposes them, sometimes for the first time, to classical music played live, says Ashley Offret— Modern Times: Though a lawyer, Robert Marra, Jr. has a big hand in his late father's orchestra. Classical Conductor: Robert Lehmann leads the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra in addition to teaching at the University of Southern Maine. KJ NS Apr14 Symphony.indd 116 2/21/14 12:16 PM

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