Newark Symphony’s Oct. 25 concert at The Independence School marked the beginning of a milestone season for an orchestra that started as a small community ensemble in Newark in 1966 and has grown into a roughly 60-member volunteer orchestra. Image by Photographer Eric Dunford.
Anniversary season celebrates six decades of community music with collaborations connecting the orchestra to musicians, students and audiences across Delaware
NEWARK, Del. — The Newark Symphony Orchestra opened its 60th-anniversary season Sunday with a program that paired some of classical music’s best-known composers with musicians from the University of Delaware and a nationally recognized guest oboist.
The Oct. 25 concert at The Independence School marked the beginning of a milestone season for an orchestra that started as a small community ensemble in Newark in 1966 and has grown into a roughly 60-member volunteer orchestra.
Music Director Simeone Tartaglione led Sunday’s program, which ranged from brass-heavy contemporary and ceremonial works to Mozart and Tchaikovsky.
The concert opened with the national anthem before moving to Anthony DiLorenzo’s “Aura” and Richard Strauss’ “Vienna Fanfare.”
A strong University of Delaware connection helped distinguish the anniversary opener.
UD trombone professor Bruce Tychinski performed alongside fellow university music faculty members Heidi Lucas on horn and Brianne Borden on trumpet, along with the University of Delaware Trombone Choir and Newark Symphony brass musicians.
The collaboration was appropriate for a season the orchestra is using not only to look back at its history, but also to highlight its relationships with other musicians and music organizations throughout the region.
Daniel Bates, principal oboist of the National Philharmonic Orchestra, was the featured soloist for Mozart’s “Oboe Concerto in C Major.”
The afternoon concluded with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, one of the Russian composer’s most recognizable large orchestral works.
The orchestra is documenting its anniversary season visually as well. Photographer Eric Dunford captured Sunday’s performance, with the Newark Symphony posting a 51-photo album from the concert.
Six decades in Newark
The Newark Symphony traces its history to 1966, when the orchestra says musicians first rehearsed as a community ensemble in the living room of founding director Harley Hastings.
Hastings led the orchestra until 1982. Roman Pawlowski served as music director from 1983 through 2009, and Tartaglione has led the orchestra since 2010.
Today, the nonprofit organization describes its mission as enriching the community through live orchestral and chamber music and music education while keeping performances economically accessible.
The orchestra presents seven concerts during its 2026-27 season.
Rather than making its 60th anniversary solely a retrospective, the organization is building collaborations into the season. Planned participants include musicians from the University of Delaware, the Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Newark Symphony Orchestra Chorus, other community choruses, professional soloists and composers.
Students will share the stage with the orchestra during four of the season’s seven concerts.
The season is scheduled to conclude in May with Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” and the Chesapeake Silver Cornet Brass Band.
The Newark Symphony also maintains programs beyond its regular concert schedule. Its Betsy L. Kent Youth Concerto Competition gives young musicians an opportunity to perform with a full orchestra, while its Instruments in the Attic program collects, refurbishes, and provides instruments to middle and high school students seeking to continue their music education.
Those efforts reinforce a theme that will run through the orchestra’s 60th season: celebrating its own history while helping develop the musicians and audiences who could shape its next generation.
Sunday’s opening concert provided an early example — combining longtime community musicians, university faculty and students, a professional guest soloist and an audience gathered in Newark to begin the orchestra’s seventh decade together.
TO GO
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