For thirty-three years, the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra has brought musicians and the community together in the belief that music has the power to affect the lives of all people. Through its long tradition of reaching out into diverse communities through concerts, community partnerships, in-school and community education programs and by providing opportunities for musicians, RSO is an integral part of Wake County and the Triangle. A community resource since 1979, RSO has premiered numerous works and choreography. For its budget size, it produces more events than any other professional or community orchestra in North Carolina. In a blind artistic survey conducted by the N.C. Arts Council, RSO ranked with orchestras having two to five times RSO’s budget.
The orchestra annually receives critical acclaim
for its performance quantity and innovative programming. It is frequently
mentioned in print media’s “Ten Best” selections of classical concerts in the
Triangle. RSO has been awarded the Raleigh Medal of Arts for its
inclusive and innovative programming, community outreach and high artistic
standards.
Read part of a recent RSO review........the main point to be taken from this fine performance is that, with tickets at less than half the cost for orchestras such as the NC Symphony, the RSO provides affordable access to the standard repertory, which is well-played in straightforward interpretations. Anyone who has never attended an RSO concert, fearing amateur or second-rate performances, should have no hesitation in buying a ticket. An enjoyable experience is guaranteed. Click here to read the full review
Our Conductor and Musical Director
Jim Waddelow, a native of Oklahoma, joined the faculty of Meredith College as Director of Instrumental Activities in 2007 and in 2011 received the Ida H. Friday Award, which was established in honor of Ida H. Friday, a Meredith alumna and wife of former UNC System President William Friday. Waddelow conducts the Meredith Sinfonietta and serves as Musical Director for musical theater productions in the Department of Theater and Dance. He has been the Orchestra Director of the Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony Summer Music Camp in Eureka Springs, Arkansas since 1999.
He has conducted over 30 operas and musicals at the college and professional level. Previous appointments and affiliations include: Texas Tech University, Lubbock Moonlight Musicals, The Oklahoma Youth Symphony, The Lubbock Youth Symphony, Summer Overtures Theater, The University of Central Oklahoma, and The University of Arkansas. He also conducted the nationally recognized Putnam City North High School orchestra for six years. Principal teachers include Gary Lewis, Ralph Morris, Roger Strong and Lon Dehnert. Jim is a member of the Conductor’s Guild, College Orchestra Director’s Association, American String Teacher’s Association, Music Educators National Conference and The College Music Society. He is an active clinician and adjudicator throughout the South.
Degrees Held: B.M.E., M.M., University of Central Oklahoma; D.M.A., Texas Tech University
Courses Taught: Orchestra, Conducting, Instrumentation, Orchestration, Instrumental Music Education.
Alan Earl Neilson, Flutist & Conductor (1930-2011)
The son of Dorothy and W. Earl Neilson was born in Philadelphia on November 24, 1930. He demonstrated outstanding music talent early in his life and enjoyed the benefits of encouragement and superior instruction. He attended the University of Tulsa and upon obtaining his undergraduate degree began a professional career in music with the opera and symphony orchestra there; he also spent considerable time touring with Boris Goldovsky's opera company. While in Tulsa, in 1958, he completed a master's degree.
It was from there that he was in 1970-71 summoned by NC Symphony Music Director and Conductor Benjamin Swalin to serve as the state orchestra's Principal Flute. He remained devoted to that Maestro and his wife, Maxine, to the end of their days, and they reciprocated his admiration, following his subsequent work in North Carolina with keen interest.
Fairly early in the tenure of John Gosling at the NCS, carpal tunnel problems and other issues forced Neilson to abandon professional engagements as a flutist. With encouragement from colleagues, he took up work as a conductor, leading ensembles for numerous area dance companies and theatres and supplementing these engagements by offering private flute lessons.
After several years invested in making a new career in the Triangle, Neilson was engaged to conduct the orchestra then based at NC State University. Soon thereafter, a split among the players occurred, and he was asked to form a new ensemble for adult players who wished to devote their energies to concerts of mainstream classics. The Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, established in 1979, was the Maestro's first major musical undertaking as a conductor, and he remained at the helm as Music Director until the appointment of James Waddelow as his successor last September.
Meanwhile, relatively early in the life of the Durham Symphony Orchestra, its founding conductor, Vincent Simonetti, a former colleague of Neilson in the NCS (Simonetti had been Principal Tuba), elected to leave the DSO in order to devote more time to his blossoming tuba and brass instrument business (which was to become one of the largest such specialty shops in the world). In 1984, after a season of conductor auditions, Neilson was appointed the DSO's second Music Director, a position he retained until February 2008; following a search, William Henry Curry was appointed as his replacement in 2009.
During the intervening years, Neilson led the Arts Festival Orchestra, formed in 1989 by musicians from the RSO and the DSO. As there were always some players in common in the two orchestras, this short engagement led to the hope in some quarters that the two community groups might eventually merge, but different goals and objectives instead kept them on separate albeit roughly parallel tracks.
Neilson also served for a year as conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra, during the absence of its music director, giving rise to hope that he might eventually obtain a college or university post, but this was not to be.
While the wages of his work in the musical trenches were often small, Neilson was the recipient of numerous honors and awards over the years, and virtually every area critic from Nell Hirschberg and Peregrine White on - until December 4 of last year - sang his praises in frequent reviews.
As the artistic head of two of our region's most important community orchestras, Neilson's work was of immense cultural and educational value. He truly devoted his life to music, living on the tiny incomes from his two appointments and occasional freelance gigs. He lived frugally, residing in a garage apartment for a time before moving to a tiny rental house on West Cornwallis Road in Durham, where he resided for 30 years - until relocating, in January, to a retirement home in Wake Forest near his friend Irene Burke, who is also the Executive Director of the RSO.
Neilson was predeceased by a brother Warren. He is survived by a daughter, Leslie Scheffers, and a grandson, Aaron Stafford, both of Michigan. There will be a visitation at the Brown-Wynne Funeral Home on St. Mary's Street in Raleigh from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday. A funeral will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Raleigh, with a reception in the hall immediately following. He will be buried in Pennsylvania. The family requests that flowers not be sent, but gifts in his memory may be made to the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, the Durham Symphony or a musical organization of the donor's choice.
(919) 546-9755
P.O. Box 25878
Raleigh, NC 27611
manager@raleighsymphony.org