Starr

The Emporia Symphony Orchestra will play at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Albert Taylor Hall. The orchestra is conducted by Emporia State Director of Orchestra, Jeremy Starr, son of former director James Starr who retired last year.

Tickets will be available for $5 general admission, $4 for students and senior citizens and free for children under 12.

The group is playing “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius, a transcription for a full orchestra by Bach and Beethoven’s 2^nd Symphony.

Starr said he gets a lot of advice from his father and they have weekly meetings every Monday morning. He said his father is a great mentor and it was strange working where his father used to work in the beginning.

“There was kind of an adjustment period because I very much was feeling like I was in my dad’s office, which I am, technically,” James Starr said. “But I think this is really exciting because my dad took over the orchestra conducting position this last year and that set it up so his job covered everything that I was specializing in at the University of Iowa, so it worked out. I just applied and that was it.”

Sophomore psychology major Fernando Cartagena said Jeremy Starr has been doing a really good job. He’s had classes with both Jeremy Starr and his father.

“I wouldn’t say his dad is better,” Cartagena said. “I don’t have a preference. I wouldn’t say one or the other is better.”

In 2000, the symphony orchestra was disbanded. This year, with the help of Starr, the orchestra was brought back.

“The symphony was in the hands of the university and it didn’t serve primarily the university, it served the community,” Starr said. “The full orchestra experience would be in the symphony. When the university got rid of it, it left a hole that’s been here ever since. So it’s just sort of been on peoples’ minds for all these nine years and it just sort of worked out when I came in and I had training in orchestral conducting.”

Cartagena said the best part about the orchestra is that people from the entire community, adults and students, come together and play. The group has 65 people. including 15 ESU students, 7 high school students and other members of the community.

“It gives people a chance to be involved with music and enjoy music,” Cartagena said. “It’s a great idea for people to get together and play.”

Starr said the greatest thing about orchestras is that they are like families in that the instruments are so different, but everyone comes together. He said people’s personalities come through when they play and describes it as a microcosm for what a community should be like.

“I think this is a beginning,” Starr said. “I don’t think it’s something that people are going to see go away, hopefully, ever again and I hope that the community realizes that. I hope this becomes something that they understand is theirs. We have a symphony, something that can really bless the community for generations to come and that’s why we’re around. I’m really excited to be part of it.”

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