If you’re down by the Pantages today, tomorrow and Thursday, you’ll probably notice all the buses transporting thousands of schoolkids. They’re downtown listening to the Tacoma Symphony’s annual Simply Symphonic concerts.

So there’s nothing particularly new about orchestras giving schools concerts, but the TSO’s program is admirable in both academic reach and sheer size. Around 4,500 fifth-graders from 82 schools and 13 districts in the South Sound–up 12 per cent from last season–will hear the orchestra play Offenbach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach and more this week. It’s a program that recently won the TSO The 2009 Impact Award from The

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Up Country duo Kevin Neil and Ray Mann. Photo courtesy Tacoma Symphony.

The folks at Tacoma Symphony are expanding their POPS series. In January it was Andrew Lloyd Webber faves, and this weekend they’re heading into Country, with a capital C. The orchestra will back the duo Up Country (guitarist Kevin Neil and bassist/drummer Ray Mann) in “Into the West,” a program of greatest country hits: "Don’t Fence Me In," "Hey, Good Lookin’,” "I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love With You)," "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," "The Tennessee Waltz," "Ghost Riders in

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The San Francisco Symphony. Photo courtesy Seattle Symphony.

It takes a lot to convince me to drive up to Seattle through evening rush-hour traffic in the kind of fog we’re getting these days, especially mid-week. But tonight and tomorrow night there’s the kind of reason that would make me go up twice in a row if I had the time:

The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

They’re playing Benaroya Hall tonight and tomorrow, and they’re playing Brahms, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. But even if they were playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”

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The Seattle Symphony has reconsidered. Here’s the latest:

Tonight’s Messiah Performance Cancelled



Seattle, WA – In the interest of safety, tonight’s 8:00pm performance of Handel’s Messiah has been cancelled due to worsening weather conditions.

Ticketholders for tonight’s performance should call the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747 on Monday, December 22, between 10:00am and 6:00pm.

I’m in the newsroom this afternoon, covering Snowpocalypse. Even an arts editor is pressed in to duty on days like this.

I was expecting the whole Puget Sound A&E scene to shut down this weekend but found this in my in box:

WEATHER ADVISORY



Seattle Symphony’s Messiah Performances Will Continue As Planned



Seattle, WA – All performances of Handel’s Messiah will be performed this weekend at Benaroya Hall, regardless of inclement weather. Concertgoers are urged to plan accordingly for possible traffic delays.

Performances of the perennial favorite, conducted

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If you go to hear the Seattle Symphony at the Pantages this Friday, you won’t just hear the Seattle Symphony. You’ll also hear (and see) four outstanding young Pierce County musicians, playing with the world-class orchestra as part of their annual Gold Medalists program.

The SSO concert is an annual Tacoma visit, of course, presented by the Tacoma Philharmonic. It’s a great way to hear this fantastic orchestra without the hassle of I-5, Seattle parking fees and whatnot. And they’re playing a great program: Mozart’s overture to “Don Giovanni,” the Beethoven violin concerto and Dvorak Symphony no.

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Joshua Roman, cellist. Photo courtesy Federal Way Symphony.

Been to hear the Federal Way Symphony lately? This weekend is a great time to do so: the semi-professional orchestra has a top-class gig to open their season– Joshua Roman.

This cello virtuoso from deepest Oklahoma was, at 22, the youngest ever musician to win a principal position in the Seattle Symphony. One year later he’s left the SSO for a solo career, juggling it with managing the Town Hall Series in Seattle (which he injects with regular shots

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Judging from Maestro Harvey Felder’s remarks during the Tacoma Symphony‘s "Behind the Stands" concert Friday night, Tacoma must be full of people very frightened of chamber music.

It’s an odd assumption, considering Tacoma has a chamber orchestra, chamber music series, and numerous individual chamber groups playing the town. But Felder was talking to his symphony audience, who were filling the seats at the Tacoma Art Museum for an unusual start to the TSO season: a season preview concert of (shock, horror) chamber music.

As it turned out, his remarks weren’t necessary.

Eleven of the orchestra’s

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