After our last classical series concert, the orchestra stayed for an extra 30 minutes to get an important job done: it was orchestra photo night. Every few years, a new portrait of the orchestra and its music director is taken. In virtually every other year, the photo is a standard, staid, and well, boring actually, affair. The camera is up in the balcony, and the orchestra and conductor are on the stage, looking up at the camera.
This year, our PR director, Carl Herko, had a different idea (and one which has been sweeping around the orchestral world lately) – put the orchestra in the audience, give a view of the people that make up the orchestra by showing them off of the stage. I haven’t seen any proofs from the photo shoot at the Oregon Symphony, but here’s an example of a similar photo done by the Concertgebouw Orchestra [click to enlarge]:
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Photo: Simon van Boxtel