Fluharty Presents $5,000 to Wheeling Symphony
Derek Redd Trending
The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, thanks to Del. Shawn Fluharty, will be able to fortify an aspect of its performance that may not seem big, but is crucial to how the orchestra plays.
Fluharty, D-Ohio, presented the WSO on Monday with a check for $5,000 from his legislative fund for local infrastructure. That money will go to buying new lights for the orchestra's music stands.
WSO Executive Director Sonja Thoms said those lights haven't been replaced for a while, and the technology is dated. On some stands, two of the lights are needed to properly illuminate the sheet music.
"The lights we have are not incredibly bright," Thoms said. "Our musicians rely so heavily on being able to see their music. It's a part of their instrument. Upgrading that equipment is really going to help them."
While the current lights in use are battery-powered and tend to fail, the new lights will be rechargeable and their technology will be much improved. Maestro John Devlin, the WSO's conductor and music director, said such equipment is important for performances like pops concerts and the movie score performances they have done in recent years. In those performances, the Capitol Theatre's lights are usually darkest.
"This is just another aspect of moving toward the betterment of how our concerts look and sound," Devlin said.
Devlin added that the $5,000 should completely pay for those lights or at least come very close. That's a relief because that's an expense the WSO's board of directors doesn't have to worry about.
Fluharty said he's happy to help the WSO any way he can. It is such an integral part of Wheeling's quality of life, so it should be able to run at peak performance.
"The symphony helps make Wheeling so unique," Fluharty said. "You think about other cities of this size, and they don't have the advantage of the symphony like we do.
"Everybody talks about quality of life and what attracts, whether it be young people to move here or to keep what we have here," he added. "Quality of life is a measurement of that and the symphony is one of those pillars that we have that brings added quality of life to the area."