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Tech-affiliated Bryan Symphony Orchestra celebrates 60 years of music and memories in the Upper Cumberland
The Bryan Symphony Orchestra performs a concert in the Wattenbarger Auditorium on
Tech's campus.
Cookeville’s Bryan Symphony Orchestra, the only professional symphony in residence
outside of an urban center in Tennessee, is celebrating its 60th anniversary throughout
the 2023 – 2024 season. It is a milestone made possible in part by the orchestra’s
unique partnership with Tennessee Tech University.
BSO concerts are a collaborative effort of the nonprofit Bryan Symphony Orchestra
Association and Tech’s School of Music. Performances are held in the Wattenbarger
Auditorium in the Bryan Fine Arts Building on Tech’s campus and the BSO’s music director,
Dan Allcott, is a longtime music professor and director of orchestral activities at
Tech.
The BSO itself was named for famed composer and McMinnville native Charles Faulkner
Bryan, who chaired the music program at Tech in the 1930s. Music majors at Tech can
audition to perform in the symphony orchestra alongside School of Music faculty and
professional musicians from across the region.
“It’s a reminder of the wonderful footprint that people put down early in our community.
Many of us now are following and developing things that were importantly laid for
us by an earlier generation,” said Allcott of the BSO’s 60th season on the latest episode of Tech’s College Town Talk podcast.
“It means a tremendous amount that our community has supported a professional symphony
for sixty years,” added Rachel Wingo, executive director of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra
and adjunct instructor at Tech. “I keep reflecting on how impressive it is that we
have a symphony orchestra here in the Upper Cumberland, and hoping I can live up to
the legacy left.”
Both Wingo and Allcott say the BSO’s launch and early success in the 1960s can be
traced back to a group of unsung heroes: Tech faculty wives and other local women
with a dedication to the arts.
“In this case, the Bryan Symphony Orchestra Guild, which was mainly a lot of faculty
wives who came to Cookeville when Cookeville didn’t have a lot going on … they banded
together in support of the School of Music, along with the [former Tech President
William Everett and First Lady Joan] Derryberry Family … and said ‘we’re going to
support this,’” said Allcott.
“The primary fundraising and events were in the hands of the women of the Symphony
Guild for many years, long before the position I'm in existed,” added Wingo. “I feel
like our longevity has a lot to do with that: the historic leadership of dedicated
women in the Guild, but also with a consistently community-minded Board of Directors,
and of course, the partnership with Tennessee Tech.”
Allcott adds that, today, the BSO Association works in partnership with the School
of Music at Tech to raise over $250,000 annually in support of the BSO’s mission through
subscription sales, fundraising and grants.
The Bryan Symphony Orchestra performs an annual free concert at Dogwood Park for over
2,000 people each Labor Day weekend.
Still, Allcott says the BSO’s greatest legacy lies in the opportunities it affords
to Tech students.
“Many of the students, it’s when they are gone that they get back to me and say ‘I
didn’t realize what a great opportunity that was to sit next to my professor in a
professional orchestra and then come to my professional life or graduate school and
have all this experience that so many people didn’t have – and I got it because I
was at Tennessee Tech,’” said Allcott, who also conducts Tech's University Orchestra
- an all-student ensemble comprised of music majors and student musicians from other
disciplines.
It's not just college students who have opportunities to engage with the BSO, either.
Each year, the BSO hosts a free education concert for local fourth graders.
“We will be bringing in around 3,000 fourth grade students from five surrounding counties
to experience live orchestral music in November,” said Wingo.
More than just a field trip, Allcott explains that the annual education concerts are
tailored to deliver meaningful academic value to the young attendees.
“We developed a curricular education concert. We work to meet state standards of music
education during those concerts and we always have a teacher who collaborates with
us to create pre-concert materials,” added Allcott.
Ticket holders will have their next opportunity to see the BSO in action at a concert
on Sunday, Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. on Tech’s campus.
The concert, which will feature living American composers and opera selections in
memory of Tech’s late President Emeritus Angelo Volpe, is what Wingo says she has
most looked forward to this season.
“I personally love opera and I have found our guest artist, Shana Blake Hill’s soprano
voice to be an awe-inspiring instrument. I’m proud of the fact that we’re doing this
concert in memory of Dr. Volpe,” said Wingo.
Looking ahead, Wingo says she hopes to build on the rich legacy the BSO has established
over the last six decades.
“My biggest hope for my time with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra is that no one is able
to say that they haven't heard of us or didn't know we were here, and I'd love for
that to happen in the next few years,” said Wingo. “Working on the 61st season and
beyond, I think we'll be honoring our legacy while creatively expanding our future.”
Learn more about the BSO and purchase concert tickets at www.bryansymphony.org.
