Symphony assistants get their day in the spotlight

The Omaha Symphony’s assistant principal players can probably identify with Jan Brady, the perennially frustrated middle sister from the 1970s sitcom “The Brady Bunch.”

“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia” was Jan’s complaint about her limelight-stealing big sister. “Maria, Maria, Maria” could well be assistant principal flutist Leslie Fagan’s gripe about principal flutist Maria Harding.

This weekend, music director Thomas Wilkins is playing the diplomatic, fatherly Mike Brady role.

For his performance of American composer Karel Husa’s Serenade for Woodwind Quintet, Xylophone, Harp and Strings, Wilkins has asked five of his assistant principal players to solo.

Assistant principals Fagan, flute; Jason Sudduth, oboe; John Klinghammer, clarinet; Adam Trussell, bassoon; and Ross Snyder, French horn, have all answered the call.

“I want all of my core players to shine,” said Wilkins. “I programmed the Husa so that the orchestra’s assistant principals could take center stage for a change.”

Saturday’s concert at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Strauss Performing Arts Center includes performances of three other notable works.

It opens with British composer Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, Op. 4, a work the prodigious Britten first outlined at age 13. Aaron Copland’s rhythmically vital “Three Latin-American Sketches” follows.

The main work on the program is Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, D. 125. Like the Britten, this also is a relatively early work, composed when Schubert was still a teen.

All the same, Wilkins says the work has the form and finesse of a mature Haydn symphony.

“Only Schubert could write a symphony like this,” the conductor said. “The melodies are just that beautiful.”

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com

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