Cape Ann Symphony Kicks Off Season with THE VIRTUOSO ORCHESTRA!

Cape Ann Symphony kicks off Season 74 at 2:00 PM on Sunday, September, 28, 2025 with The Virtuoso Orchestra Concert! featuring music from Gustav Holst and Modest Mussorgsky, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. The Cape Ann Symphony performs at Manchester-Essex Regional High School Auditorium on 36 Lincoln Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.

The program for The Virtuoso Orchestra Concert! highlights the power and majesty of the orchestra led by Music Director and Conductor Maestro Yoichi Udagawa.   The concert opens with  Gustav Holst's awe-inspiring The Planets, Op. 32. The Treble Chorus under the direction of Brittany Betts and  featuring members of the Cape Ann Symphony Chorus and singers from the community join the orchestra for Holst's piece. The concert closes with Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by French composer, pianist and conductor Maurice Ravel.

"The opening concert in September will be an incredible demonstration of the virtuosity of the musicians of the Cape Ann Symphony", says Maestro Udagawa, "The program will be two of the most monumental and brilliant works ever written for orchestra and definitely audience favorites. Holst's Planets requires huge forces that Holst uses brilliantly to create musical portraits of 7 planets - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The composer Modest Mussorgsky's musical interpretations written for solo piano combined with Maurice Ravel's brilliant arrangement for orchestra of that music continues to be a favorite of audiences the world over. We are all very excited about this concert!" 

Gustav Holst had hoped to become a pianist, but was prevented by neuritis in his right arm so he pursued a career as a composer. Unable to support himself and his family by his compositions, he became a teacher at Morley College, where he served as musical director from 1907 until 1924, and at St. Paul's Girls' School pioneering music education for young women, where he taught from 1905 until his death in 1934. Holst's orchestral suite The Planets was written between 1914 and 1916. Holst was inspired by astrology, with each movement intended to convey the personality and astrological character of a different planet.   Holst described The Planets as "a series of mood pictures" acting as "foils to one another" with "very little contrast in any one of them." Although astrology was Holst's starting point, he arranged the planets to suit his composition. He ignored some astrological factors, attributed certain non-astrological qualities to each planet and did not arrange the order of movements in the same order as that of the planets' orbits around the sun. The suite was first performed privately in 1918 and given its first complete public performance in 1920. After its debut Gustav Holst  became an international phenomenon achieving rock star status worldwide. The suite is widely considered one of Britain's most famous classical compositions.

Rockport's Brittany Betts, Director of the Cape Ann Symphony Chorus, along with accompanist Priscilla Walter  is leading the 20 member Treble Chorus to perform in Holst's The Planets. The Treble Chorus features voices from throughout the North Shore: Gloucester: Shelly Moran, Marit von Tetzchner, and Deirdre Weed; Rockport: Wendy Betts, Barbara Cornell, Betsy Eck, Barbara Ellis, Carolyn Howard, and Gail Zeman: Essex: Kate Bilsbury and Katzi Rueda; Manchester-by-the-Sea: Janet Boynton, Maureen Gedney, and Marion Hall; Beverly: Jacqueline Gravell, Karen Kepler, Sue Lupo, and Jeanie Murray; South Hamilton: Elena Lazaridu and Middleton: Stacy Smith.

 Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, wrote Pictures at an Exhibition  in 1874  as a piano suite in ten movements. A tribute to Mussorgsky's close friend  the painter Viktor Hartmann  the work  musically depicts a tour of an exhibition of ten works at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in honor of Hartmann after his sudden death the previous year. There are ten movements in Pictures in addition to  the Promenade which is heard between the movements. Each movement of the suite is based on an individual painting.

Mussorgsky's piano suite was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922. The collaboration was commissioned by conductor Serge Koussevitzky, who led the American premiere of Ravel's arrangement in 1924 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. French composer, pianist and conductor Maurice Ravel was intrigued by the piano suite's unique style.  His arrangement re-imagined the work for a full orchestra adding French colors and textures as well as  elements of his own post-Impressionist style. 

Founded in Gloucester in 1952, the Cape Ann Symphony is a professional orchestra of over 70 players from throughout the New England area. They perform a subscription season of four concerts per year plus several Pops and youth concerts. The Symphony Board of Directors named Yoichi Udagawa the Music Director and Conductor of the Cape Ann Symphony in the summer of 2000 after a yearlong search. In addition to his leadership of Cape Ann Symphony, he is Music Director and Conductor of the Melrose Symphony Orchestra, and the Quincy Symphony Orchestra and a cover conductor at the Boston Pops Orchestra.  Frequently invited to guest conduct, Maestro Udagawa has worked with many different orchestras including the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Nobeoka Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra, the Indian Hill Symphony, the Garden State Philharmonic, the Brown University Orchestra, the Syracuse Society for New Music, the Boston Conservatory Orchestra, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra, the Newton Symphony, the Austin Civic Orchestra, and the Mid-Texas Symphony. Maestro Udagawa is at home in popular and contemporary music as well as the standard symphonic repertoire. He is known for his relaxed manner and ability to speak from the podium which has helped new audiences as well as enthusiasts gain a greater appreciation for symphonic music. His programs often include premieres of new works – some specially commissioned for the orchestra — as well as great orchestral works across the symphonic repertoire and lively Pops programs. He is also an integral part of the Cape Ann Symphony Youth Initiative.

Yoichi Udagawa, the son of a nuclear physicist father and singer/artist mother, was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. His family immigrated to the United States soon thereafter. He began playing the violin at age four and made his conducting debut at age fifteen. After receiving a music degree from the University of Texas at Austin, he continued advanced studies in conducting with Gunther Schuller, Seiji Ozawa, Morihiro Okabe, and Henry Charles Smith. A fan of many different styles of music, Mr. Udagawa also enjoys performing gospel music in addition to his conducting activities. He is also an accomplished violinist and an avid fan of exercise and yoga.