Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Participates in Baltimore Running Festival Today, 10/13

For the third consecutive year, musicians, staff, donors and volunteers from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) will participate in the Baltimore Running Festival. Today, October 13, 2012, this team of 160 runners will run as members of BOLT for the BSO, a group dedicated to raising awareness and funding for the Orchestra. Interested supporters or runners should contact Jennifer Barton at 410.783.8122, jbarton@BSOmusic.org or visit BSOmusic.org/bolt.

As an official charity of the Baltimore Running Festival, BOLT gives runners the option of participating in the 5K, half-marathon, marathon or relay, and equips them with personal fundraising web pages to display their progress toward their fundraising goals. In 2011, the team raised $52,000, exceeding their fundraising goal, which contributed to the BSO’s annual fund.

In 2010, BSO Governing Member Cindy Renn and her friends from the orchestra, violinists Ellen Troyer and Ivan Stefanovic, gathered 10 runners to form the first BOLT for the BSO team, which raised $15,000. This year, the BOLT team plans to raise $60,000. Fifteen BSO musicians have stepped up to the challenge, including Concertmaster Jonathan Carney, Associate Concertmaster Madeline Adkins, First Violinist Ellen Pendleton Troyer, Assistant Principal Second Violinist Ivan Stefanovic, Acting Assistant Principal Cellist Bo Li, Cellist Kristin Ostling, Principal Bassist Robert Barney, Bassist Erik Stahl, Principal Oboist Katherine Needleman, Oboist Michael Lisicky, English Horn player Jane Marvine, Assistant Principal Clarinet Christopher Wolfe, Contrabassoonist David P. Coombs, Associate Principal Horn Gabrielle Finck and Horn player Mary Bisson.

The public is invited to support the team at a BOLT for the BSO Happy Hour on Thursday, October 11 at 5:30 p.m. at Mad River Bar and Grille in FederAl Hill. For a $10 contribution at the happy hour, donors will receive a free drink and $1 off all subsequent drinks. Celebrity bartenders’ tips will be donated to BOLT for the BSO. Participants receive a BOLT t-shirt and have the opportunity to meet with other BOLT runners and get an opportunity to run side-by-side with musicians from the Orchestra.

The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community outreach initiatives.

The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop’s leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.

Under Music Director Marin Alsop’s leadership, the BSO has rapidly added several critically acclaimed albums to its already impressive discography. The BSO and Maestra Alsop partnered with the Naxos label to record a three-disk Dvo?ák symphony cycle. The first disc, which includes Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” and Symphonic Variations, was released in February 2008. The second disk in this cycle features Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8, was released in June 2010, and the third disk features Symphony No. 6, Nocturne in B major, and Scherzo capriccioso was released in 2010. Following the success of the BSO’s cycle of Dvo?ák recordings, the BSO released two new recordings in 2012. The first features Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, and the second, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, “Titan.” The BSO and Maestra Alsop also recorded and released with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet a one-disk recording of Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue & Piano Concerto in 2010. In August 2009, the BSO and Marin Alsop released Bernstein’s Mass featuring baritone Jubilant Sykes, the Morgan State University Choir and the Peabody Children’s Chorus. The album rose to number six on the Classical Billboard Charts and received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Album. The Orchestra made its foray into online distribution in April 2007 with the release of a live-concert recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring on iTunes, which quickly became the site’s number one classical music download.

In addition to the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where the orchestra has performed for 28 years, the BSO is a founding partner and the resident orchestra at the state-of-the-art Music Center at Strathmore, just outside of Washington, D.C. With the opening of Strathmore in February 2005, the BSO became the nation’s only major orchestra with year-round venues in two metropolitan areas.