Orchestra

That the Baltimore Symphony Chorus is a superior ensemble, and that conductor Edward Polochick has done a fine job in the 15 years he has directed it, was obvious last night in Meyerhoff Hall in an all-Mozart concert with the BSO that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of the chorus.The centerpiece of the program (and the only work in which the chorus appeared) was Mozart's "Requiem" in D Minor (K. 626), the composer's final, not-quite-completed work.The singing of the chorus was confident in attack and eloquent of utterance, and the massed sound it produced was luminous at both soft and loud dynamic levels.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra expects to increase its projected deficit for the 2003-2004 season from $1.6 million to $2 million, administrative officials said yesterday. The $400,000 increase would push the orchestra's accumulated debt to about $3.2 million. Driving the red ink are shortfalls in ticket sales for the BSO's own concerts and presentations of other performers at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and a shortfall in contributions to the annual fund, said vice president and chief financial officer Douglas Mann.

The Internet, which connects people every millisecond in one way or another, has generated an entire orchestra from a cyber pool of strangers - aspiring players from 70 countries on six continents who uploaded more than 3,000 audition videos. The YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which bows April 15 in New York's famed Carnegie Hall with a concert led by esteemed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, began online in December with an open invitation to players of all levels to try out for the ensemble.

Steve Nagrabski, the Highlandtown accordionist whose Silver Notes Orchestra serenaded East Baltimore's Polish community for more than 30 years, died of an aneurysm March 18 at his Highlandtown residence. He was 71.For Mr. Nagrabski, the sweetest sound in the world was the jaunty and happy music that emanated from the bellows of his black and white Iorio accordion.He assembled his band in the early 1950s and was a fixture at East Baltimore bull roasts, weddings, union picnics, Christmas parties, VFW halls and dances.

In its 34 seasons, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra had never missed a concert.Then, courtesy of the relentless winter of '94, it happened twice in the same weekend.The performance scheduled for Friday, Feb. 11 was, of course, canceled immediately in the aftermath of the Thursday-Friday storm. But the hope was that the program consisting of Faure's "Pavane," the Saint-Saens A-minor Cello Concerto and Beethoven's Eighth Symphony could be salvaged on Saturday.Winter had already played havoc with the orchestra's preparations under guest conductor Walter Proost, the 42-year-old Belgian maestro who recently became the first non-Italian ever to head a major Italian orchestra, the Symphony of San Remo.

Think of an orchestra and it's not likely that a guitar will come to mind. But music aficionados are in for a rare treat this weekend, when the Columbia Orchestra teams up with award-winning guitarist Paul Moeller for a guitar concerto as part of the orchestra's final classical concert of the season, "Contemporary Classics." The concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez by the late Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo, is one of three 20th-century compositions the orchestra will present Saturday evening at Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts at Wilde Lake High School.

Student achiever: Amanda Joy Dinsmore ("I like to be called A. J."), 13. School: Mount View Middle School. Special achievement: In the summers of 1998 and 1999, she was selected to play double bass in the All-National Disney Orchestra. She also plays in the University of Maryland, Baltimore County orchestra. What she says about it: "I was so excited when I saw the big envelope from Disney in the mail, and I opened it and it said, `Congratulations.' I couldn't believe I made it, and I screamed.

This Tuesday the Angel of Death alights in Baltimore.Joseph Suk's gigantic, brooding "Asrael" -- the name of the angel in Muslim mythology who takes away the souls of the dead -- will be performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and its music director Libor Pesek in Meyerhoff Hall. It's rare enough that visiting orchestras come to Baltimore -- this is the first since Sergiu Comissiona brought the Jerusalem Symphony four years ago -- and rarer still that an orchestra brings such an unusual symphony.

When Simone Pedroni, a 24-year-old Italian pianist, won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition last June, he was awarded $15,000, his own CD recording, a Carnegie Hall debut, professional management and a succession of engagements worth in excess of $200,000.The reward for the winners of the first Chesapeake Youth Symphony piano competition won't be as grand -- $100 and an appearance with the orchestra -- but it still is good reason for young pianists in our area to emulate Mr. Pedroni by repairing to the nearest piano to practice, practice and practice some more.

Last week's classical concerts by the Baltimore Symphony were the first by the orchestra in Meyerhoff Hall in more than a month. Where -- one might ask -- have the musicians been? Except for two weeks of vacation they've been here -- playing run-outs, pop concerts and tiny tots concerts. But symphonic schedules are usually worked out years in advance, and the reason that the BSO musicians didn't have any classical concerts in Meyerhoff was that they were originally scheduled to be somewhere else during this period -- in Europe on a three-week tour.