By Ron Evans

In an era where digital playlists and streaming services curate our musical landscapes, classical and symphonic music can often feel like vaguely familiar ghosts from another time, enveloped in layers of complexity and formality. For many modern listeners, the grandeur of a symphony or the intricate and mysterious passages of a concerto might seem daunting, or even alien. But, beneath this veneer of antiquity lies a vibrant, evolving world of sound that has shaped the very foundation of contemporary music.

Nikolas Caoile, Director and Conductor of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony, has a deep-rooted passion for classical music’s layered history while also embracing the importance of modern sounds. He enjoys blending timeless symphonic works with contemporary influences. Performances by the Wenatchee Valley Symphony have featured recognizable film scores and pop culture elements alongside Mozart, Holst and Beethoven. His innovative approach helps keep the classical tradition alive while introducing new listeners to the power of symphonic performance. This is Caoile’s 14th year as Director and Conductor for Wenatchee Valley Symphony and he has earned the respect of local symphony fans over those years – I can’t tell you how many people have told me I needed to sit down with Nikolas for a Comet feature. And what better time than the launch of the symphony’s 77th season?

It looks to me like you have been having way too much fun with this symphony.

We are doing some fun things for sure. My interest right now for programming for the symphony has to do with doing things that are more current, more versatile, more diverse, just to engage a wider audience. So in the recent past, we’ve done some rock and roll, we’ve done some movie music. We’ve done some animated music and we’ve also done some ballet, things that are outside the typical realm for a symphony orchestra, right?

How do you go about deciding which projects you are going to be doing next?

I am constantly looking at other orchestras. I follow a lot of composers, I follow a lot of conductors, and I see some of the projects that they’re doing. And, you know, there are a lot of orchestras that are built on tradition, such as the Vienna Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic. They’re still looking backwards in terms of what they’re programming. But there are a lot of other places that are doing really interesting things, like LA, San Francisco, even some European orchestras, some Asian orchestras. They’re doing radical things that you might not see normally with an orchestra. For example, I saw an Asian orchestra do a Concerto for Orchestra and ping pong table. And I thought that was just so cool. The percussionist had to do this rhythmically with the orchestra and actually maintain a ping pong match in tempo.

Wow. That sounds like a challenge. And something I’d love to see.

It was pretty incredible. The other thing I’m really interested in is building upon previously underrepresented groups, composers – their ethnic backgrounds. You’ll also see a lot more female composers in my programming. You’ll see a lot more African American composers in my programming, and you’ll see quite a bit more living composers in my programming.

Are you more interested in contemporary music than some of the classics? Or is it an equal thing?

It’s an equal thing. I love Beethoven, Brahms and Bach. As much as I like, you know, Florence Price and Anna Clyne and Mason Bates and John Williams, I even like popular music. I like jazz. For me, the definition of a symphony orchestra is an ensemble that can do all those things at once. It doesn’t have to do just what we traditionally call classical music, right?

Well, you mentioned John Williams (famed composer of themes from Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter to name a very few). Of course, that’s one thing that I think people can get excited about concerning symphonic music. I mean, we all know the classic scores, even many modern films often still use a symphonic score.

Yeah, last year we did that Hollywood project. And you know, of course, those instantly recognizable soundtracks from Up to Catch Me If You Can – all these modern movie scores that you didn’t have to really explain anything for. We played the music, and it instantly conjured up the images from those movies. We also played older classical music that later ended up serving as a soundtrack for modern movies like Apocalypse Now, The King’s Speech and even Tom and Jerry cartoons. You know, music just has this amazing power to animate our imagination.

Do you have a favorite composer or a favorite piece, maybe one that actually turned you on to classical music in the first place?

Yeah at the very, very beginning when I entered into this classical music world – it was those CDs that I checked out from our local library. And one of the first CDs I checked out was the Mozart’s Requiem, something about that was very powerful for me as a young person. Just popping into the my compact disc player and just listening to it without even knowing what it was about, not even knowing what Requiem means, not even knowing who Mozart was, that music was very, very powerful to me.

The kind of music that I’m into today actually is the music by composers who are influenced by popular music, and in particular dance and rave music. The ones that have come from a background of electronica and have heavy rhythmic backbeat. Composers like John Adams, Mason Bates, an English composer named Thomas Addis. These are all people that came out of an era of dance music clubs, illicit drugs and then they took those sounds and brought it to this more sophisticated classical music stage.

So how does the symphony work – where does the funding come from? How much turnover do you get concerning musicians? And do you hold auditions? It’s all so mysterious!

Yeah, so we’re a nonprofit, and our revenue comes primarily from three sources; first, tickets sales and second is giving. Individual, corporate and business giving, but we are also building endowments. We have the operating expenses in terms of our personnel, we draw upon locals for, what we call, core musicians. So we would say about half of our orchestra, which is about 30 members, are drawn from Douglas and Chelan counties. These are volunteer musicians. By day they are doctors, business owners, teachers, stay at home parents, and then by night they rehearse with us for these concerts that we give four, five, six times a year. We supplement the other half of our orchestra with what we call imports from around the region. Some of those are CWU music students. Some are professionals from Seattle, Yakima, Spokane, all around the state.

And yeah, our roster is very fluid. It changes from year to year. Some people move out of the region. Some people just decide to retire. Some people are new to the region. So we audition every single year to get a sense for who our roster is and which positions are needed to be filled. We hold those auditions before the year begins, and then once those positions are filled, then we see all the gaps. For some reason… harps, contrabassoon, bass clarinet – these are very rare, endangered species, kinds of instruments. I can count the number of harpists in our state on my hands and feet. So we have to really scour the state to find harpists who are willing and available to play for our concerts.

I’m friends with local filmmaker Charley Voorhis (Voortex Productions) and we were just chatting about an intriguing collaboration you are doing with him that’s coming up this month.

Charley is one of the most giving, generous artists in our region. He’s an amazing person. And you know, he has a mission when it comes to his video production and his art, but he also has a secondary mission, I think, which is to give to our community. And that’s one of the things Wenatchee Valley Symphony tries to do as well. So he and our group have exchanged quite a bit on his 10 year anniversary. He’s done some stuff for the We Are Wenatchee series. He did some filming with us from a helicopter over Ohme Gardens. That was pretty cool. And this is now his 20th anniversary celebration. What I like about this project is that it’s combining original music – these are pieces that were conceived just for this event – and the course videography that he’s creating just for this production. This is kind of a feast for the senses, for the ears and for the eyes, and for that live experience. I’m really thankful for Charley and what he’s done for the symphony and for the Wenatchee Valley.

Well, where there’s a Charley Voorhis there’s often a Lemolo (Seattle based indie dream-pop artist and collaborator with Voortex) not too far away. And this project is no exception. Is the music based on her works?

Yeah, we’re taking the songs that she’s already recorded, and two CW composition students have taken those three songs and arranged them for her plus an orchestra. So in a way, it’s original, because they are now fleshed out into a symphonic version, rather than just the studio electronic version that she recorded.

I’m excited to see that. I think it’s going to be amazing. She’s already so ethereal so…that in a symphonic setting, I think will be next level. So that’s a special event that’s happening September 21, what else you got cookin’ for this season?

I always tell people it’s a little bit like I’m a chef in a restaurant. I’ve prepared four different dinners for the season. Concert I is on October 5, and the feature and theme there is called Serenade. For this, I’ve created a program of concerts based on this genre Serenade, which is a composition that is meant to be performed in honor of someone they love. So one of the pieces is Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Wagner took the poetry from a woman, Matilda Wesendonck, this is someone he had an affair with – and he sets her poetry to songs.

That’s some pimp shit right there.

Right? [LAUGHS] What’s fun is that the person singing those songs is my wife, Melissa Sheil, she’s a mezzo-soprano, so that will be a fun performance. The other serenade will be Stravinsky’s ballet, Pulcinella. Pulcinella is an Italian character who is a womanizer, and in the ballet, he goes around and flirts with all these women and all their husbands seek to kill him as a result.

I’m loving this scandal and drama!

So much drama! So then in November we have Concert II which I’m calling Vox Femina, again to promote the work of female composers. There was a recent study that said that almost 95% of music performed by orchestras is by men. Very, very few women – living or deceased. So this will feature work from Dani Howard from England, Anna Clyne from England, and then Florence Price, an African American from the early 1900s. We are also featuring a female guest artist named Sally Singer. She’s a renowned cellist. This will be a very, very nice concert.

Concert III is in February and I’m calling this one Water Works. And everything on this program was, or is, inspired by water. There’s a composer from Alaska named John Luther Adams, and he wrote a series called Become. He’s an environmentalist and he wrote three pieces, Become Ocean, Become Desert, and another piece called Become River. And they’re basically soundscapes that are aural representations of what he thinks an ocean, desert and a river sound like.

The other part of that program for Water Works is Fountains of Rome, by Respighi – this concerns some of the fountains throughout the capital city of Italy.

Then we are going to feature a premiere composition by the WVC Professor of Music, Juel Iwaasa. He’s going to write a concerto for string quartet and orchestra. The name of the piece that he’s composing is called The Eye Sees Only Water and the Ear Hears Only Sounds. I have not even heard or seen anything of this, except I know Juel is an amazing composer. So this is going to be kind of a surprise for me once he’s completed this composition. I’m excited to see that.

Then for Concert IV, our season finale in April, we will be doing Carmina Burana. This will involve almost 200 people on stage. The orchestra will be made up of about 75-ish and a choir of about 120. This is one of the biggest pieces in the repertory, huge percussion section, grand pianos, big brass section, of course, a big choir. And in this case, we’re collaborating with the Columbia Chorale. And because it’s so big we don’t fit at the Numerica Performing Arts Center so we’re going to perform this piece twice at Wenatchee High School. That stage is just big enough for all these players. Oh, and there’s also a children’s chorus involved as well.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

Voortex Live II — Saturday, September 21, 2024, 7pm, Numerica PAC

Concert I: Serenade — October 5, 2024, 7pm, Numerica PAC

Concert II: Vox Femina — Saturday, November 2, 2024, 7pm, Numerica PAC

Concert III: Water Works — Saturday, February 22, 2025, 7pm, Numerica PAC

Concert IV: Wheel of Fortune — Saturday, April 12, 2025. 7pm, Wenatchee High School Auditorium

Concert IV: Wheel of Fortune — Sunday, April 13, 2025. 7pm, Wenatchee High School Auditorium