Welcome back to Lynchburg Field Notes, a column that arrives in your inbox on Wednesdays with quick news updates from the past week and previews of what’s coming up next in the Hill City and surrounding communities.
The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra is set to take the stage this month with its largest group of musicians yet. Learn about the start of the symphony’s season in this edition, plus catch an overview of upcoming events planned to recognize the anniversary of Sept. 11 and protect the James River watershed.
You can connect with me at emma@cardinalnews.org if you have ideas for future stories.
Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra set to pack stage with most musicians yet
September marks the start of the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra’s new season and a milestone for the group: 80 musicians, the most yet, will take the stage.
The orchestra, which normally performs with around 60 musicians, is expanding for its Sept. 26 performance of Gustav Mahler’s first symphony. David Glover, the orchestra’s conductor and music director, said Mahler is known for saying that “A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.”
“And I feel like this piece really does,” Glover said. “With the number of instruments and the variety of sounds, it’s an amazing journey to huge fanfares at the end and through everything in between.”
The orchestra consists of a mix of Lynchburg-area musicians — many of whom teach music in local schools, universities and studios — and regional musicians who travel to the Hill City to perform at the Academy Center of the Arts. The group was founded in 1983.
The orchestra can only grow because interest and support from the community is growing too, Glover said. In recent years, he said, the orchestra’s leaders have worked to make music more accessible, by expanding beyond classical pieces to offer more familiar pop and Broadway tunes and sending small groups of musicians to perform at community centers like farmers markets and the library.
“The audience is getting more and more excited to see what we do next,” Glover said. “And the more that we can grow on that side, then the more support we can get from individuals and businesses and grants, and the more we’re able to provide to our community.”
This year’s season will stretch through May and will include a collaboration with Wolfbane Productions for a performance of “Sweeney Todd,” a holiday concert, a performance of Elton John and Billy Joel classics, and more. The season schedule and ticket information is available on the orchestra’s website.
Sept. 11 commemoration events scheduled in Lynchburg area
Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Lynchburg-area groups are hosting events to remember the lives lost.
A remembrance ceremony will be held Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the base of Monument Terrace in downtown Lynchburg, hosted by city officials and members of the Lynchburg fire and police departments. A rally to support the troops, hosted weekly by the Monument Terrace Troop Rally group, will follow at noon.
The Rotary Club of Forest will host an opening ceremony for its Field of Honor display at 6 p.m. Friday. The group will place more than 1,000 American flags along Graves Mill Road as a tribute to active-duty military personnel, veterans, first responders and other heroes, and the display will be open through Sept. 23. Friday’s events include live music, an ice cream social and a keynote speech by retired Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, one of the original members of the Army’s Delta Force special missions unit and a former commander of the Green Berets.
The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford will host a wreath-laying ceremony on Friday at 11 a.m. as well. The event will be livestreamed for those who can’t attend in person.
On Saturday, ceremonies will return to Monument Terrace in Lynchburg as the Freedom Defense Group hosts a stair climb challenge. The event begins at 9 a.m., and participants will climb the stairs of the monument 14 times, for a total of more than 2,000 stairs to represent the stories that first responders climbed on Sept. 11 to rescue victims at the World Trade Center.
Residents invited to join James River cleanup project
Lynchburg Water Resources staff are partnering with the James River Advisory Council to clean up the James River on Saturday, and residents are invited to join.
The event runs from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rotary Centennial Lynchburg Skatepark. Volunteers can arrive any time in that window and will be provided safety vests, gloves and litter grabbers to remove waste from the James River and the areas around it. Residents can register to be volunteers on the city’s website.
The event marks the start of James River Week, an annual celebration of the waterway and the communities it connects across Virginia. Organizations throughout the James River watershed will host events to help residents learn about, explore and protect the river, which stretches from Botetourt County to the Chesapeake Bay. A full list of events is available online.
