Audiences looking for classical music in downtown Phoenix this year will have to go four blocks west to find it.
Phoenix Symphony has moved into the Orpheum Theater and Dodge Theater while Symphony Hall undergoes an $18.5 million overhaul.

“There certainly has been apprehension and concern,” says Eric Sellen, Phoenix Symphony’s director of marketing and public relations, about the 15-month-long renovations. Work is being done to fix Symphony Hall’s leaky roof, redo the electrical system, remove asbestos, improve access for the disabled and add more lobby space. New carpeting, wall treatments and new seating will complete the improvements.”

But now that the season is about to start, the mood is one of excitement.
“I think we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re feeling pretty good about it all,” Sellen says.
The biggest question for Arizona’s largest performing arts organization may be whether it can continue to grow and make money during the 2004-2005 season even though it’s been displaced.

“Our sales feel pretty good at this point,” Sellen says. “To me, some concerts, some series, are ahead of previous years.”

The symphony has worked hard to get ready for their season of transition.
It has added two new series to the season line-up: The Saturday Masterworks Series and Symphonic Sundays. The Masterworks series includes eight full-length performances. Symphonic Sunday offers seven new matinees featuring talks with the conductor.

A special acoustic shell will surround the orchestra to help focus the sound when it plays in the vaudeville-style Orpheum.

And when the ensemble plays the modern, comfy Dodge — which is especially suited, Sellen says, for the symphony’s pops and family concerts — the orchestra will have to be miked.
“But we do that with our pops concerts anyway,” Sellen says. “That’s a normal thing for a pops concert. By and large, one doesn’t even notice it.”

The Scottsdale Symphony found itself in a similar situation last year after moving from its traditional home at Scottsdale Center for the Arts to Grace Chapel. But the change of venue didn’t seem to hurt the symphony.

“We had a wonderful first year there,” says Irving Fleming, Scottsdale Symphony’s music director. “The same people that have always been with us have stayed. We’ve picked up a great number of new people because we’re just two blocks from the (Interstate) 101 so people can come down from the north in about 12 minutes ... and we get people coming in now from the south.”

Fleming says that some people might think that by moving into a church, the orchestra has “come down”. But to Fleming, the chapel is the perfect home.

“It was built for music, not for poetry readings, not for religious services, not for anything but to praise the Lord in music. The place is absolutely gorgeous — the lighting, sound, the stage, comfort, hall and the lobby looks like the main lobby down at Gammage ...it’s really, absolutely upscale. First class. And that’s our home. Permanent and complete.”

Mesa Symphony is hoping it will have a permanent home when the Mesa Arts Center is finished in October 2005. “We’ve been excited for four years,” says Mesa Symphony Executive Director Kathryn Fellows, who’s office is across the street from the center, and has been watching the arts complex grow daily.

“We struggle," she says. "The amphitheater’s a joke, the churches we play at are a joke. Acoustically we can’t hear each other ... Just moving the orchestra into the new homes will make the orchestra better.”

In April, the symphony will present “Transitions,” the last concert of the 2004-2005 season. The event will be a farewell performance, a symbolic transition from the symphony’s old home to the new and will feature music that has a farewell theme: Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto No. 5 and Tchaikovski’s Symphony No. 2, “The Little Russian.”
“Even though we’re not leaving town or anything like that,” Fellows says, “we are leaving our gypsy, vagabond way of life that we’ve known for 48 years.”