Each Wednesday evening at 9:00 on WHRO-FM, "A Local Touch – Music with a Virginia Connection" shines a spotlight on composers, performers, and ensembles linked to the Commonwealth. This week, Raymond Jones opens 2026 with a particularly strong program, bringing together new and old concert performances and works rooted in Virginia.
We begin the new year with a concert by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eric Jacobsen, and recorded live in September 2025 at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach. The program features Samuel Barber’s “Overture to The School for Scandal,” followed by “Dance,” the cello concerto by British composer Anna Clyne, performed by renowned cellist Jan Vogler, and concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
Then, from the “Commonwealth Connection” concert in April 2024, we’ll hear Randall Thompson’s “Ode to the Virginian Voyage” with the Virginia Chorale led by Charles Woodward and Stephen Coxe at the piano.
The program also includes “Symphonic Fortress”, by Virginia-based composer James Hosay, performed by the Army Continental Band from Fort Monroe, under the direction of the composer himself.
And rounding out the program is “Songs for a Winter’s Evening” by Thea Musgrave, the Scottish-born composer made her home in Virginia for some time. The work is heard here from a BBC Proms performance featuring soprano Lisa Milne and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä.
Join Raymond Jones this Wednesday evening at 9:00 on WHRO-FM 90.3, or listen online, for the first “A Local Touch” of 2026, celebrating music with a Virginia connection.
