How Save Our Symphonies Is Connecting DC with Its Musicians

On Tuesday, September 29th, four musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera gave a powerful and transcendent performance of Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor. Op.110, famously dedicated “to the memory of the victims of facism and the war.”

The event was organized by Save Our Symphonies (SOS), founded by Mary Beth  Ray. Below, Ray describes the important and timely work of the organization:

Save Our Symphonies began, improbably enough, with a chance encounter at the Kennedy Center several years ago. I was attending an NSO performance of Beethoven and Shostakovich when I found myself seated next to a delightful woman who turned out to be a musician herself. Adria Foster, principal flutist of the Washington National Opera Orchestra, was there to hear her husband, Dan Foster, principal violist of the National Symphony Orchestra. We exchanged contact information, stayed in touch, shared dinners in each other’s homes, and over time became friends.

When President Trump removed the Kennedy Center board and installed new leadership, I reached out to Adria and asked a simple question: How can we help? At the time, many people deeply upset about what was happening at the Kennedy Center chose to boycott performances. I understood the impulse, but I also knew that the people most immediately hurt by empty seats would be the musicians themselves. These extraordinary artists had devoted their lives to their craft, and I wanted to find a way for audiences to support them while still acknowledging the turmoil surrounding the institution.

That led to an idea: bring the musicians directly into the community. We began organizing small musical “salons” in intimate settings, where NSO and WNO musicians could perform, talk with audience members, and share what this moment meant to them. We hosted the first salon in our home, followed by a conversation with the musicians. It worked. People who had planned to boycott came away determined to attend performances instead. They had connected not with an institution or a political controversy, but with the human beings who make the music.

From that first gathering, Save Our Symphonies grew. We reached out to neighbors at the Watergate, other musicians, NSO board members, and friends throughout the Washington community. Our volunteer group now meets regularly, and we have organized 15 salons throughout the DMV—in private homes, churches, clubs, the IMF, the Hill Center, and other community spaces. My neighbor Peggy Theil, a professional graphic designer, created our now-iconic NSO and WNO heart buttons, which have been worn by musicians and even Maestro Gianandrea Noseda at concerts. We are a grassroots, self-funded effort, not a 501(c)(3), and donations help us pay for salons, buttons, postcards, and other outreach.

At its heart, Save Our Symphonies is about connection: connecting world-class musicians with the people who love their music, and introducing them to new audiences who may come to love it too. The next two years will undoubtedly bring challenges as the Kennedy Center closes for renovations and the NSO and WNO perform in venues across the region. But they also present an opportunity. I believe these magnificent orchestras can use this time to engage more deeply with the Washington community, reach new audiences, and remind all of us that great music belongs not just to a building, but to the musicians who create it and the audiences who show up to hear it.

Our goal is simple: keep the music playing. When the musicians eventually return home to the Kennedy Center, we hope they return with an even larger, stronger, and more deeply connected community behind them.

—
Mary Beth Ray
Founder and Chair, Save Our Symphonies