No ASOC Without The ASO

Speech to Fulton County Commissioners in Assembly Hall, September 17, 2014

Good morning, honorable ladies and gentlemen of the commission, and thank you for this opportunity to speak in support of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Musicians.

My name is Kiki Wilson, and I am here as a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, a world-class chorus started 45 years ago by the venerable Robert Shaw. I speak for myself today, and not on behalf of that organization.

My husband’s family has lived in Atlanta for generations, and my father-in-law ran Grady Hospital for many years. I have been a member of the ASOC for 33 seasons.

The members of the ASOC perform numerous concerts with the orchestra each year: together we bring a vast repertoire of the sung word to audiences in Symphony Hall – everything from traditional holiday music dating from the Renaissance, to the poetry of Rumi and the voices of 9/11 set to music by living American composers.

Additionally, members of the ASOC participate annually in community events such as the ecumenical service held each year at Ebenezer Baptist Church celebrating Martin Luther King Day; special concerts like the “Defiant” Requiem commemorating the victims of Terezin concentration camp; and performances of the National Anthem, opening the Falcons’ football season. During the week of 9/11, the ASO and the ASOC brought music to help heal a grieving community. We are invited regularly and often to Carnegie Hall to perform, where only the world’s finest grace the stage, and, though never covered in the local media, our many recordings with the ASO have garnered multiple Grammy Awards, most in the ‘best classical’ and ‘best choral performance’ categories. We have represented Atlanta 3 times performing with the Berlin Philharmonic, reputedly the world’s finest orchestra and we hope to return some day to Berlin with our own world-class Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

And yes, some of us even sang on a picket line recently.

Each singer volunteers hundreds of hours every year for the opportunity to share great art with our community, and to experience music-making at its highest level, in an environment where excellence is the only acceptable standard. We work tremendously hard, but we understand that together we are better, as musicians, as people, and as citizens, than we could ever be individually.

The power of this organization, a sparkling gem in Atlanta’s crown, is in striving for and achieving of excellence each and every performance. And without this standard, we would stay closer to home and sing exclusively in our local community choirs. Said differently, without a world-class orchestra with which to perform, not a diminished regional one, we are nothing.

There is no Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus without the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Thank you.