Hi everyone.  I just recently moved from Anchorage, Alaska to suburban
Washington, DC.  I went from subscribing to the Anchorage Symphony
Orchestra to being a subscriber of the National Symphony Orchestra and
wow, what a difference!  I never really thought of the Anchorage Symphony
as a bad orchestra and I'm still not at all sure that I would.  But the
difference between them and a fulltime professional major symphony is
huge.

The National Symphony so far seems a lot more interested in new music.
In my first two concerts I actually heard two world premieres (three if
you count a specially commissioned encore after the first concert).

The quality of performers also seems to differ enormously.  That's no
surprise though.  A full time orchestra's members will have a lot more time
for working on music than a part time orchestra's members will.  But, I did
not expect the difference to be so big.

It raises the question for me of how much better can it get? Does anyone
have any thoughts on the best orchestras around the US and the world and
how they differ from others? Or tales of the differences that they found
going from a small, minor orchestra to a major one?

Female Schatz     ICQ#32385611
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