Lois Reitzes was honored at an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra live performance on Thursday, Could 29. (Pictures by Rand Strains)
The longtime WABE radio host and humanities advocate is retiring from every day broadcasting on the finish of June.
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“Spirit of the Radio,” the 1980 prog rock traditional by Rush, kicks off with “start the day with a pleasant voice, a companion unobtrusive.” For 45 years, for listeners of WABE 90.1 in Atlanta, that voice belongs to Lois Reitzes. The announcement of Reitzes’ departure from the station was a bittersweet second for broadcasters and audiences alike.
For the final 10 years, Reitzes has been dedicated to Metropolis Lights, her common program overlaying the humanities and tradition in Atlanta. However previous Metropolis Lights (and operating alongside it) has been Reitzes’ internet hosting of WABE’s broadcasts of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
At its Thursday, Could 29, efficiency, the ASO awarded Reitzes its rarest and most coveted honor: a golden ticket good for premium seats at any of its performances.
Extra in ArtsATL: WABE to launch Metropolis Lights Collective following Lois Reitzes retirement
“I’ve on the stage with me somebody who wants no introduction,” started ASO Govt Director Jennifer Barlament earlier than being drowned out by enthusiastic applause. Her temporary remarks have been punctuated all through by comparable eruptions till Reitzes herself stepped ahead.
That acquainted, pleasant voice — this time tinged with an undercurrent of stronger feelings — was heard all through the home. “Speechless will not be a great factor in radio,” she started to heat chuckles.
“My favourite thinker is Mel Brooks,” she continued. “And when he gained the Oscar in 1969 for The Producers, in his acceptance speech, he mentioned ‘I simply wish to inform you what’s in my coronary heart: ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump.’”
The comment was met with large laughter, however Reitzes stepped gently into deeper waters. “What fills my coronary heart at this second is overwhelming gratitude for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. For 45-and-a-half years with WABE, the best privilege related to my job has been the experiences I’ve had with the ASO.” She went on to talk about the joys of interviewing the creatives of all varieties related to the group, crediting them with “increasing my appreciation of music in ways in which simply develop deeper with time” and closed with “My due to all of you for the sweetness, the which means and the enjoyment you’ve got offered me. I look ahead to listening to you carry out for a few years to come back. Thanks.”
It was a humble speech met with a standing ovation. And for all of the mild weariness in her voice, Reitzes was as upbeat as ever once we chatted the next day. She was nonetheless reeling from the earlier night’s tidal wave of feelings.
“When the orchestra stood up, it took my breath away,” she remembers. “I used to be so deeply touched, I didn’t know if I may transfer, after which David [Coucheron, concertmaster] bounded out and gave me a hug!”
That depth of reference to all the ASO group has been cast over many years of broadcasting, and, by all of it, Reitzes has discovered that studying concerning the musicians, their craft and their views has formed her personal life.
“What has been such an incredible expertise for me all through the years has been not solely the chance to be up shut and private to the music however to have been immersed in a lot of it by the musicians themselves,” she explains. “Not solely the visitor stars, which have been fairly glamorous and thrilling, however the musicians of the orchestra have a lot depth to what they carry to their enjoying.”
For Reitzes, discovering out what varied conductors carry to their craft and the orchestra as an entire has been uniquely fascinating. Reitzes has been part of WABE through the careers of 4 ASO conductors (Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi, Robert Spano and now Nathalie Stutzmann) and located Spano’s imaginative and prescient of specific curiosity.
“Robert is without doubt one of the most profound intellects on this planet,” she declares. “And he’s one of many kindest folks you possibly can ever meet.” She’s been notably fascinated by the director’s efforts to showcase new classical music. “To see viewers members rise up and cheer for modern music … that simply didn’t occur earlier than Robert.”
She paints a equally vivid and poetic image of Robert Shaw: “One other wonderful mind. And a humanist. He would simply go from one thinker to a different after which carry all of it again to the voice and spirituality. Throw in just a little humor, and there was Robert Shaw.”
Her involvement with the ASO wasn’t restricted to the radio. Beneath director Levi, she carried out on stage with the orchestra as narrator of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. “It was one of the crucial thrilling experiences of my life,” she remembers fondly. Levi additionally introduced her in to relate Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Citadel.
Extra appearances included lectures and interviews carried out at Symphony Corridor. It turns into clear in speaking together with her how integral the area grew to become to her life’s work in broadcasting, which makes Thursday’s ceremony really feel all of the extra momentous.
Reitzes says she’ll be making good use of that golden ticket in retirement and factors out that will probably be simpler to attend live shows now that she doesn’t need to rise within the wee hours of the morning. However it doesn’t matter what changes she makes to her retired life, it’s clear that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will at all times be her residence for the classics.
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Jordan Owen started writing about music professionally on the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee School of Music, he’s an expert guitarist, bandleader and composer. He’s at the moment the lead guitarist for the jazz group Different Strangers, the facility steel band Axis of Empires and the melodic loss of life/thrash steel band Century Spawn.
