Atlantic Symphony plays the field

Behind the Scenes

October 27, 2011|By Robert Knox, Globe Correspondent

Music director Jin Kim conducting The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. The… (Photos/The Atlantic Symphony…)

The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra ‘Joyful Noise” Dec. 3, Thayer Academy, Braintree

‘Masterworks Gala” March 30, Jordan Hall, Boston

‘Masterworks Classical” March 31, Duxbury Performing Arts Center

‘Pops” May 5, Thayer Academy, Braintree

Details at www.atlanticsymphony.org

As its new concert season began this month with programs in three different venues, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra continued to face the challenge of spreading its name without a single-community identity or a consistent home concert hall.

The regional music organization that bills itself as a symphony orchestra for the South Shore divides its full orchestra concerts between Duxbury’s Performing Arts Center and the Thayer Academy Center for the Arts in Braintree, with an additional visit to Boston’s Jordan Hall. Its solo and chamber concert schedule for the 2011-2012 season also includes dates in two Hingham churches, Duxbury’s archival library, and a restaurant in Hull.

“The South Shore community is really broader than the fragmented towns,’’ board member and former president Roy Harris said of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s evolution from the Hingham Civic Orchestra to its current identity as a professional orchestra for an entire region.

“Realistically, there is a problem with associating a musical organization with one town,’’ Harris said. “When you’re drawing people from other towns and performing in other towns, the name Hingham becomes a handicap. It’s going to be a confusing thing for these new audiences.’’

The orchestra’s board addressed the identity problem three years ago, changing the orchestra’s name to the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. The new, ambitiously inclusive name was “a big leap,’’ Harris said last week.

“We bit off a big title, and I believe we’ve carried it off,’’ he said.

But a new name and varying venues still produces confusion among those who haven’t made the orchestra’s acquaintance. “We still do encounter it - ‘What is the Atlantic Symphony?’ ’’ Harris said.

The orchestra made the initial decision to raise standards and transform itself into a professional orchestra 13 years ago and hired current music director Jin Kim to do the job. Relying on a supply of strong youthful players from Boston’s music schools, Kim auditions each summer, weathers the inevitable turnover, and puts the orchestra into shape for a new season. This year the Atlantic has a new permanent concertmaster (first violin) in Ethan Wood.