Toledo Symohony's next season aimed at diverse audiences

Guest soloists include Martina Filjack, winner of last year's Cleveland International Piano Competition. CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER Enlarge

"I love YouTube," said Stefan Sanderling, his eyes twinkling.

Who doesn’t, really?

There is literally something for everyone at any minute of the day or night, a cross-section of life on Planet Earth in all its silliness, grandeur, and brutal honesty.

"We live in a world so much determined by big emotions that are right in your face like a 30-second YouTube video," observed Sanderling.

Still, to plan the Toledo Symphony’s 2012-2013 season, Sanderling wants to offer a counterpart to the click-pop experience.

"Classical music doesn’t work that way, and I am not sure life works that way. Bruckner will never have a 30-second pop," Sanderling said.

For its next season, titled Music Captures Your Imagination, the orchestra’s principal conductor and music advisor worked with Bob Bell, Merwin Siu, and others to shape a season that will captivate and hold multiple audiences.

If your taste leans to major orchestral works, next year’s Classics Series programs in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle will include Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (Feb. 8-9), Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz (Oct. 19-20), Richard Strauss’ massive Alpine Symphony (May 17-18, 2013), and plenty of Brahms, Beethoven, and Mozart.

Guest soloists will include Martina Filjak, the hot new pianist and winner of last year’s Cleveland International Piano Competition (Sept. 21-22), plus local favorite Frances Renzi, Kimberly Loch, Georg Klaas, and the return of Cornelia Hermann.

The symphony will welcome a classical guitarist, the Chinese phenom Xuefei Yang (April 19-20, 2013), and once again will collaborate with Cornel Gabara, founder and director of Glacity Theatre for Stravinsky’s dramatic, "A Soldier’s Tale" (Nov. 16-17).

For those who love classical sounds but in a smaller setting with reduced orchestra, the Mozart and More Series will begin Oct. 27 with Strauss and Haydn, continue with Vivaldi and Mozart, and wind up with members of the Bach family, including the black sheep, P.D.Q. Bach. The Franciscan Center at Lourdes University in Sylvania offers easy access from any point.

Sanderling’s Bruckner symphony project will continue March 10, 2013, with the composer’s Symphony No. 2 performed in Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral.

Nearing the end of his first decade with the Toledo symphony, Sanderling, 48, came of age artistically during his tenure, and has helped propel the orchestra into what he believes is its central role in this region’s life.

"We are dedicated to educate, to enrich, and to entertain," he said. "There is a huge variety of things an orchestra needs to provide. If we do that consistently, it is like a healthy long-term investment portfolio for the area."

The Toledo Symphony, Sanderling noted, has assumed a higher ranking among American orchestras in recent years — not for the size of its budget, which is modest, but for how much impact it has on citizens of all ages living in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

"We take it very seriously," he said, of the orchestra’s mission.

A triumphant debut in Carnegie Hall in May, 2011 gave the orchestra new prestige, locally and nationally. Plans to tour China at the behest of new investment groups is opening up an enormous new world of audiences for Sanderling and the symphony staff and musicians.

But the orchestra staff is always mindful of the diversity of its audience base.

The new season will bring to town favorite entertainment from the past and new productions for the ever-popular KeyBank Pops Series in the Stranahan Theater.

So well-received was its recent circus-themed concert that the TSO has booked a real circus with live acts — Cirque de la Symphonie — as a highlight of the pops series Feb. 2.

It will open with Gary Puckett (Sept. 29), include a five-star musical salute to veterans (Nov. 3), bring back Kenny G. (Nov. 24) and an Eagles tribute (April 13), and dip into the riches of Broadway (May 4).

The Family Series in the Peristyle will bring back Halloween Spooktacular plus share collaborations with the Toledo Ballet, Toledo Botanical Gardens, and Toledo Opera.

And chamber music aficionados will once again gather in the elegant Toledo Club for the Blade Chamber Series on Sunday nights, with a wealth of small ensemble performances featuring symphony musicians and guests.

Contact Sally Vallongo at: svallongo@theblade.com.