The Windsor Symphony Orchestra (WSO) continues to see success.
The WSO provided an annual update to Windsor City Council on Monday morning, where it was stated that over the last few years they've seen an uptick in attendance for events, as well as a major uptick in rental bookings at the Capitol Theatre.
An update was also provided regarding a formal search for a new music director following the passing of Maestro Robert Franz.
Franz passed away earlier this month following his battle with cancer.
The WSO says following the Celebration of Life being held for Franz in October that the official search will begin.
Deborah Severs, Chair of the WSO Board of Directors, says the Capitol Theatre is booked up for the remainder of 2025.
"There is literally not a spare block in the theatre that's available and open. And people book it for other events, they book it for parties, there's all sorts of events, the city council use it at times when they want to have a nice, formal council meeting."
She says they're seeing an uptick in attendance for the WSO performances.
"There have been times where we've had sell outs, and we didn't see sell outs until 2018-2019 with Robert's [Franz] year. We were really moving, we had sell out crowds, we were thinking about adding extra concerts and then obviously COVID hit and just decimated. Ever since 2022 when we've had no restrictions, moving forward, last year we had our first two or three concerts that actually were sold out."
Severs says they will wait to search for a new music director until after Franz's Celebration of Life.
"So right now, that's not our main focus. We want to honour him, make sure that this tribute is everything that he wanted for the community, for the people who are going to come to his Celebration of Life. And then we will seriously start to look for the music director."
The Celebration of Life for Robert Franz will be held on October 14 at the Capitol Theatre.
Severs says the WSO have a number of events coming up that they're really excited about including Classical in the Concrete Concert, The Music of Star Wars, Disco and Motown, Holiday Pops, and many others.