Richard Scerbo, who grew up in Annapolis and graduated from the University of Maryland, is the new music director of the Columbia Orchestra. Its first concert of the season is scheduled for September 14 at the Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School. Photo courtesy of Columbia Orchestra

• Share

PRINT

Since its formation in 1977, the Columbia Orchestra has been a cultural force in Howard County, offering performances in a variety of genres, from chamber music to jazz.

As the orchestra moves into its 47th season, its brand-new music director, Richard Scerbo, is excited to take to the stage to share his love of music with the community.

“When I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking about music, and when I go to sleep at night, I’m thinking about music,” Scerbo said.

After their longtime conductor Jason Love retired in 2023, the Columbia Orchestra embarked on a year-long search and chose Scerbo, an Annapolis native, from a group of four finalists.

Each finalist was asked to program a concert featuring pieces the orchestra had not recently performed. Then, feedback from both concert attendees and orchestra members influenced the final decision.

Scerbo, who calls the orchestra “a cultural gem of an institution,” assumed the conductor role in July.

What drives his work, Scerbo said, is an “unending hunger for music — and to do more, and to experiment more, and to be around people that are making music.

“What really connected for me with the Columbia Orchestra was being able to make music with people that I enjoy and respect, and that have that same enjoyment for music as well, that same hunger.”

Scerbo is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he earned an undergraduate degree in bassoon and a master’s degree in conducting.

While he also currently works at the University of Maryland as the director of the National Orchestral Institute, he previously served as artistic director and conductor of the Inscape Chamber Orchestra as well as principal conductor of the DC Youth Orchestra program and music director of the NIH Community Orchestra.

Columbia Orchestra’s executive director, Berta Sabrio, said Scerbo’s presence has already had a great impact on the orchestra as a whole.

“The orchestra is excited to come to rehearsals,” she noted. “[The musicians] have wonderful things to say about how much they love working under his baton and direction.

“Just that interaction would have been enough for me to be on board. But also his interaction with our staff — his professionalism, his kindness — is just incredible,” Sabrio said.

What’s on tap for fall

The orchestra’s primary performance space, The Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School, has plenty of free parking and affordable ticket prices, making it accessible to locals who prefer not to travel to Baltimore or Washington, D.C. to hear a live orchestra perform.

The Columbia Orchestra’s fall season features four classical concerts tied together by a thematic thread — “a new adventure”— that will engage audiences from the pre-concert conversation to the end of the show, Scerbo said.

For instance, the theme
of the first concert on September 14 is “new worlds.” The orchestra will celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary with Michael Giacchino’s “Voyage,” followed by a Duke Ellington number and Antonín Dvorák’s famous “New World Symphony.”

Other scheduled concerts include “The Latin Side of the Big Band” and “American Reflections,” as well as family and pops concerts.

The pre-concert conversations, which take place in the Mini-Theatre known as “the Box,” provide audiences an opportunity to learn about the evening’s concert program and to hear from musicians and soloists who will be performing. The new conductor also plans to host discussions with the audience after performances.

“It’s sort of like a concert plus education and conversation and enlightenment,” Scerbo explained. “You can get everything all in one place.”

Focus on the community

Both Scerbo and Sabrio are proud of the orchestra’s longtime commitment to the larger community. The orchestra performs free concerts throughout the county at senior living communities, hospitals and at the Chrysalis.

It offers a couple of family concerts each year at reduced ticket prices.

And the orchestra also operates two educational programs in partnership with Howard County Public Schools: Musicians perform interactive concerts for school children and introduce them to their instruments.

In addition, the orchestra provides “coaches” to low-income schools, teaching small groups of students and their music teachers about string instruments.

With Scerbo’s deep love of music, the orchestra under his direction is “going to keep growing into something more than it already is,” Sabrio said.