Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra to end season with Beethoven-themed 'Immortal Beloved' concert
WVSO (copy)
The Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra is seen during a previous concert at the Numerica Performing Arts Center.
The Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra set out this season with a single, capacious idea: hope.
It was a word elastic enough to hold multitudes: holiday nostalgia and cinematic spectacle, contemporary commissions and canonical masterworks. Across the 2025-26 "Season of Hope," the orchestra stretched it wide, inviting audiences to find themselves somewhere inside.
"A lot of the planning happened before I came into the office," said executive director Anton Zotov. "But the name ‘hope' … it can be applied to a lot of different things. People are hoping for great things in their lives. People are hoping for things to improve in the outside world."
That breadth became a kind of programming philosophy. Under the direction of music director Nikolas Caoile, the orchestra leaned into contrast, pairing the familiar with the new and the playful with the profound.
"We don't want to be only this academic classical orchestra," Zotov said. "We want to be open to people."
So the season unfolded in vivid pieces: film scores and holiday traditions like "The Nutcracker," genre-crossing collaborations and traditional symphonic repertoire. Each program, Zotov suggested, was "a different accent," together forming a larger, more inclusive musical language.
That openness extended beyond the concert hall. This year, the orchestra invested in improving its livestreaming capabilities, widening access for audiences who cannot attend in person - whether because of distance, health or time.
"There are a number of people … who cannot attend concerts on a regular basis," Zotov said. "So in that case, livestream opened up new opportunities."
The reach is both local and far-flung, from North Central Washington viewers tuning in through NCWLIFE broadcasts to out-of-state family members of musicians. For Zotov, the impact is often personal: he recalled a patron unable to attend concerts who called asking when she might watch from home. When the broadcast schedule was finalized, he called her back.
"She was able to watch it," he said. "So that was actually very rewarding."
Still, for all its creative momentum, the orchestra operates within the familiar constraints of nonprofit life, balancing ambition with uncertainty.
"Each year, the orchestra right now doesn't have a stable financial source," Zotov said. "We are relying on individual donations or business partnerships and then on grants … and all of these elements, they fluctuate."
Even in a strong season, the work of sustaining the 80-year-old institution remains ongoing. Next season marks that milestone anniversary, and Zotov said the orchestra plans to begin the celebration by reviving the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra Gala in June.
Yet if the season has been about hope, its final concert turns toward something more intimate: longing.
On April 18, the orchestra will present "Immortal Beloved" at the Numerica Performing Arts Center. The program is anchored in the enduring mystery of Ludwig van Beethoven's famous unsent, or at least ambiguously addressed, love letter.
The centerpiece is a contemporary violin concerto by Nancy Ives, featuring violinist Denise Dillenbeck, that explores the identities of the letter's possible recipients and the social constraints that shaped Beethoven's relationships.
"It is an exciting work because it is a new composition," Zotov said. "For me personally, it is always exciting to discover something new."
The piece draws on fragments and echoes of Beethoven's own music, weaving them into a modern score that reflects on love, class and history. It is, in many ways, the season in miniature: reverence for tradition paired with a willingness to ask new questions.
The second half returns to the source with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, one of the composer's most exuberant and rhythmically driven works.
"It's valuable because it was legendary pieces," Zotov said. "All the orchestras want to play that, and people want to hear it. But at the same time, we want to introduce music that people haven't been able to hear before."
The evening begins before the first note. A preconcert talk at 6 p.m. will bring together Wallin, Ives and Dillenbeck to unpack the program, followed by a lobby art pop-up organized in collaboration with the NCW Arts Alliance.
For Zotov, these interdisciplinary touches are more than embellishment; they are essential to the experience.
"One of my passions is to combine different mediums together," he said. "It's a chance to enhance the experience of the concerts."
As the "Season of Hope" draws to a close, "Immortal Beloved" offers a fitting coda: a meditation on love and uncertainty, on what is known and what remains just out of reach.
At 7 p.m., the music begins. For one last night this season, the orchestra gathers its many threads - old and new, local and far-reaching - into a single resonant whole. Tickets for the concert can be purchased through the Numerica PAC box office or by visiting numericapac.org.
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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 8:38 PM.