A Neponset Valley high note: Classical gets closer to home

Kirsten Scott, 18, a soprano at Dover-Sherborn High, singing last year. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

The hills, it is famously sung, are alive with the sound of music. Come this fall and next spring, so, too, will be the Neponset Valley.

The region is getting its own philharmonic orchestra. Lawrence Isaacson, the new group's music director and conductor, said he saw a place in need of professional music - the kind a professional philharmonic can provide.

"I looked around the area outside Boston at where professional orchestras were and found a gap in the Neponset Valley," said Isaacson, assistant director of the music division at The Boston Conservatory, and a guest conductor for the Aspen Music Festival and the Round Top Festival in Texas.

"We thought for such a densely populated area, it seemed surprising it had so little classical music."

Thus, the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra was born.

The purpose of founding the orchestra was twofold, he said. It brings professional music relatively cheaply (tickets will be $30, $20, and $10 for adults, senior citizens, and youths, respectively) and it gives young professional musicians a paying gig and a way to kick-start their careers.

"What that means is a $30 ticket to our show will be about what it costs to park in Boston, where you'll then pay twice that for a ticket to the Boston Symphony," Isaacson said.

"There's no charge for parking and no commute into the city; it's a convenient way to hear really great music. And the level of music will be quite professional."

The first performances are scheduled for Oct. 5 and March 22, 2009, both at Sharon High School.

Isaacson said the orchestra of 60 or so will comprise "musicians in that middle ground between college and a full-blown career; these people are at the top of their game, out of school, still learning, still taking lessons."

The orchestra is a nonprofit and will need roughly $300,000 to do the two full shows this season, he said; a regular four-show season will include three classical concerts and one pop program. Corporate sponsorship is anticipated and sought; current sponsors are the Dauphinee Gallery at Hunakai Studio in Foxborough, the Oliver Ames Estate in Easton, and the Canton Art Association.

Isaacson, 49, has considerable credentials. The Long Island native studied at Northwestern University and has been a lifelong trombone player, having performed with the Hamilton Philharmonic in Canada and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He has played all over, including with the Boston Pops and Boston Symphony. He doesn't play trombone professionally anymore, devoting his attention to conducting, teaching, and now establishing the new philharmonic.

"This is a challenge, and it's exciting to be with something from the ground up," said Nicki Meade Draves, the orchestra's executive director, a singer who has been working in arts education and development for 15 years. She has launched a $300,000 fund-raising campaign to support the orchestra, which, once it gets rolling, should be self-sustaining with an increasing number of shows.

"Eventually we want it to be a vehicle for education in the public schools," she said. "Funding for arts programs is often a lower priority and cut from budgets. With the NVPO, we'll have the talent and resources to fill some of the void."

"If we can make and beat the budget," Isaacson said, "we can start heading into not only schools but retirement communities and the like, for little or no cost. As people find out who we are, we'll be able to do that."

At auditions this spring, Isaacson heard nearly 100 musicians play their heart out for him, mostly in a large audition room at The Boston Conservatory.

One benefit of starting a professional musical entity is being able to listen to the musicians' needs, Draves said, including little things like providing beverages at shows, food, transportation, and the like, which she said "are all important things to a happy musician."

"I've worked in enough places, good and bad, to know how to get the most out of people: You treat them like human beings, first and foremost," she said.

"It's exciting for them to have a say in the policies we're forming. When you're dealing with artists, they're giving you a piece of themselves, and you want to treat them accordingly."

The area is ripe for the music such as the NVPO will offer, Isaacson said.

"People in Neponset Valley are smart, educated people - their schools are in good shape, but there's not a lot of music there," he said.

"We want to bring the next level of music to them, not just a once-a-year trip to the Boston Symphony. We don't want to be far away; we want to make it close enough to touch, to feel and taste."

For information on the orchestra, visit nvporchestra.org.