It is with great excitement that I announce the newest project of the Artena Foundation: the inauguration of a unique training orchestra, the Wa Sinfonietta. 

The Wa Sinfonietta is the first step in expanding our mission in the educational sphere where young musicians can hone their instrumental and ensemble skills as they begin their professional lives, and deepen their understanding of music so they can become effective advocates for its power to foster cooperation and its essential importance in bringing people together from all walks of life in today’s world. 

Our first season will begin modestly with two concerts, the first on March 23rd at 7:30pm at the Good Shepherd Church, and the second on May 13th at 7:30pm at the DiMenna Center. Both, in the spirit of WA, will have both new and old, and to help the first steps of the Sinfonietta, I will be taking a significant role.

The first of the concerts, on March 23rd at the Good Shepherd Church, will take its inspiration from the concert on October 25th, 1885 of the Meiningen Court Orchestra where Brahms conducted the world premiere of his 4th Symphony, op.98. As in the Meiningen concert, we will begin with the Mendelssohn Overture to the Legend of the Beautiful Melusine, op. 32.  The Mozart Basset Clarinet Concerto, Kv 622 will follow, and, after intermission, the Brahms 4th Symphony will end the concert, with, as Brahms insisted for the premiere, a much smaller number of strings to give more weight to the winds. What will be most special about the performance and may change the entire nature of the symphony, though, will be the inclusion of the haunting 4 bar introduction, which Brahms thought to add, but was convinced not to. I hazard to say, this may be the first world premiere of a Brahms symphony, since 1885.

The second of the concerts, on May 13th at the DiMenna Center, will include two American premieres of works of the great composer, who has only recently been rediscovered, Mieczysław Weinberg: his Clarinet Concerto op. 104 and his last work, the 4th Chamber Symphony op. 153

Charles Neidich

WA, “和,” is a very special word in Japanese: a circle or ring symbolizing harmony, completeness, the continuity of past, present, future, and the unity of all of humankind.