|Photo by Sadie Varlas, courtesy of WSO| Maestro John Devlin conducts the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra during a previous season's performance. The symphony announced its 2024-25 season Thursday.

For 95 years, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra has been a staple of the community, entertaining the people of Wheeling and abroad with masterful performances. The symphony will celebrate that milestone anniversary throughout the 2024-25 season, welcoming back old friends, introducing patrons to new sounds and honoring the great work that the WSO has done through 9½ decades.

WSO Executive Director Sonja Thoms said she and Maestro John Devlin, the symphony’s conductor and music director, have worked tirelessly to create a season of performances that appropriately celebrates the WSO and its anniversary. Thoms said that they shot for the moon and almost entirely hit the mark.

“We’re both dreamers,” Thoms said of her and Devlin. “I feel very proud of what we’ve pulled together. What an honor to be able to celebrate 95 years of the Wheeling Symphony here in this community and take a moment to reflect on the shoulders that we stand on and also where we’re at and where we want to go. It’s quite a remarkable time in the history of this organization.”

In creating the 95th anniversary season, Devlin said there were four pillars of the plan. He and Thoms wanted to feature the orchestra’s musicians in a way “befitting of the legacy that they have created.” The second was to honor the talent of those who reside in Wheeling but may not be directly connected to the WSO. The third was to showcase historically significant references to Wheeling’s musical past. The fourth was to continue Devlin’s mission of exposing the Ohio Valley to great American works by living composers.

“Every orchestra talks extensively about community,” Devlin said. “What Sonja and I are trying to do is combine what we know from having lived and worked outside of Wheeling – which is part of why we were hired – to then join the community in a real way and understand what the community loves, and understand what the community doesn’t yet love, but might.”

The result is a lineup that salutes Wheeling and West Virginia’s musical roots, while including popular components and established events that connect the WSO with the Wheeling community.

The celebration kicks off with the symphony’s Opening Night performance “The Legacy of the WSO.” The night begins with the symphony performing the Overture to “The Barber of Seville,” which was performed during the WSO’s inaugural season in 1929. It also will feature solo performances from eight WSO players and soprano Linda Cowan, a West Liberty University professor who has performed in New York City and elsewhere.

The rest of the 2024-25 season is as follows:

– The WSO will hold its “Celebrate America” Tour, performing at 8 p.m. July 4 at Wheeling’s Heritage Port, 8 p.m. July 5 at the Weirton Event Center, 8 p.m. July 6 at the Clarksburg Amphitheater and 3 p.m. July 7 at the Canaan Valley Resort. Tenor soloist Ben Gulley joins the symphony this year.

– “Music Under The Stars” returns to Anne Kuchinka Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 1, featuring vocalists Siri Howard and Amanda McGovern performing songs from a variety of genres.

– The second Masterworks concert, “Attention! With Chris Thile,” pays tribute to Appalachian musical roots with mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, who will perform his new concerto “Attention!” Among the other works will be “Three Dance Episodes” from Leonard Bernstein’s “On The Town.” That is a tribute to Wheeling native and acclaimed conductor Everett Lee, who became the first Black man to conduct a Broadway musical when Bernstein chose him for “On The Town.”

– Symphony On Ice returns for another year at WesBanco Arena at 7 p.m. Dec. 5, bringing together champion figure skaters, youth figure skating clubs from Wheeling and Pittsburgh and middle school and high school choirs from throughout the Ohio Valley to celebrate the holidays.

– The first Pops concert on the schedule comes at 2 p.m. Jan. 18, 2025, as the WSO will perform the score for “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” while the movie is played on the big screen. This will be the second straight season the WSO has performed a Harry Potter score, following last year’s popular performance of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

– The third Masterworks concert at 2 p.m. Feb. 8, 2025, “Nature. Beauty.” will honor the physical beauty of West Virginia’s mountainous terrain. Among the works performed that day will be “Foggy Moon Over the Gorge,” a piece by West Virginia-based composer Matt Jackfert inspired by the beauty of the New River Gorge, which became a national park in 2020. Wheeling Symphony Youth Orchestra musicians will play alongside WSO musicians that day.

– The second Pops concert, “Bravo Broadway!,” comes at 7:30 p.m. March 21, 2025. That night will feature live renditions of songs from favorite musicals. The WSO will welcome veteran Broadway stars Hugh Panaro (Phantom of the Opera), Scarlett Strallen (Mary Poppins) and Dee Roscioli (Wicked) to sing for the audience.

– The third Pops concert, “She’s Got Soul!,” will be held at 7:30 p.m. April 25, 2025 and feature the return of WSO favorite Capathia Jenkins. Jenkins has performed with the WSO twice before in 2019 and 2022, and Devlin can’t wait to work with her again as she performs songs as a love letter to the women of soul and R&B like Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan.

“It’s certainly one of those things where I want to work with her anytime, anyplace, anywhere” he said. “I love her artistry. I feel the instincts that she has. I don’t have any trouble following exactly what she wants to do musically. Anytime she tells me she has a project she wants to do, the invitation will come from me in Wheeling, 100% of the time.”

– The Masterworks series concludes at 7:30 p.m. May 15, 2025 with the “95th Anniversary Celebration.” The concert begins with a new composition from WLU music professor Matthew Harder, which is inspired by the impact of the WSO over the years. Another world premiere will be Jonathan Kolm’s commissioned piece paying tribute to the wide impact the symphony has had over the years.

The night also will include the return of WSO Conductor Laureate Andre Raphel to conduct Ravel’s “La Valse” and the debut of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra Community Choir. The choir, Thoms and Devlin said, is a work in progress. Thoms said she was inspired by Symphony On Ice to find another outlet for people in the community to take part in WSO performances.

“There used to be a really strong choir culture here in this community, from what I understand,” she said. “So we anticipate there will be a lot of interest in participating in this. We have some really great choral leaders here in this community and we’re going to need some leadership to really help pull this all together.”

For more information on the 2024-25 season, visit wheelingsymphony.com or call 304-232-6191.