Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra

Arbus – October – November 2010

 

By Fabio Mechetti

Music Director and Principal Conductor

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra

 

 

James Delisco’s early childhood in Jacksonville was marked by abuse and neglect, one of many abandoned to his fate within the state’s foster care system. Threatened with violence, he grew up under severe mental and physical abuse to the point of not being allowed to speak or cry. At the age of five he went to live with his grandmother on the north side of Jacksonville where he and his immediate family lived in poverty. In the fourth grade during a school talent show he discovered that in spite of all the adversity in his life he had something that empowered him and distinguished him from other similar stories: he had a uniquely beautiful voice. Singing became an outlet to his otherwise futureless life.

 

Through middle and high school James learned to utilize this gift to its fullest and after graduating from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and later Jacksonville University, he went on to Disney and then to Broadway where he made his debut in a production of Smokey Joe’s Café to rave reviews. Eventually he continued on to conquer other major cities in the world and is known to be the “new prince of pop, rock and soul.” We now have the opportunity to witness his talent when James Delisco joins the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra on October 16^th as lead vocalist in “The Music of Michael Jackson.”

           

Rachel Barton Pine made her violin debut with the Chicago String Ensemble at age seven and with the Chicago Symphony at age ten with the legendary conductor Erich Leinsdorf. In 1995 Rachel was severely injured in a train accident in the suburb of Winnetka, where she taught violin lessons. As she was exiting a Metra commuter train with her violin over her shoulder, the doors closed on the strap to her case, pinning her left shoulder to the train. The doors, which were controlled remotely and had no safety sensors, failed to open, and she was dragged 366 feet by the train before being pulled underneath and run over, severing one leg and severely mangling the other. Barton Pine was saved by the prompt application of tourniquets by several passengers who disembarked from the train after pulling its emergency brake handle.

 

After recovering from this tragic accident, Rachel Barton Pine resumed her career. She has become one of the foremost violinists of our time and one that we are privileged to hear performing Korngold’s hauntingly beautiful Violin Concerto with the Jacksonville Symphony on October 7-9.

 

The great French conductor Pierre Monteux called him “the pianistic find of the century.” He was one of the few child prodigies to be accepted to study with Artur Schnabel. After a memorable early career, having recorded with George Szell and other great conductors and orchestras of the 20^th century, he lost use of his right hand due to focal dystonia. For most of his life he devoted his career playing the limited but extremely rich repertoire for the left hand only.

 

How lucky our audience will be when Leon Fleisher joins the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra performing Ravel’s extraordinary Concerto for the Left Hand! It will certainly be a memorable evening for all attending in Jacoby Symphony Hall on May 12-14, 2011.

 

What these stories tell us is music’s formidable capacity of transforming lives through its healing power. Either as a social motivator as in James Delisco’s case, rescuing a talent from a possible life of neglect and destitution, or as an inspirational force that infiltrates one’s soul and demands that even the most tragic adversities cannot impede one’s talent and musical relevance to be expressed, as in the cases of Rachel Barton Pine and Leon Fleisher, music is an extraordinary antidote to life’s most sordid and terrible events. If it is such a force for those who produce it, with determination and diligence, imagine how powerful its spiritual healing power is on those who absorb it…