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Every year, we at What's Up! challenge ourselves to look back and then look forward. So I asked April Wallace and Monica Hooper, both of whom write for the magazine, to choose their top three stories from 2023.
It wasn't intended as a going away party, but Riley Nicholson's "Mindful Minimal" performance July 6 -- part of the Trillium Salon Series at Crystal Bridges Museum -- gives him an opportunity to bid a fond farewell to friends and fans. His last day with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas will be July 28, just after the rollout of the 2023-24 SoNA season.
"New Canons" is the first album ever for the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas -- and the first commercial recording of each of the compositions included on it: "Latency Canons" by Ray Lustig, "In saecula saeculorum" by SoNA Music Director Paul Haas and "Cohere I" by Trevor New.
Riley Nicholson came to the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas as executive director just as the Fayetteville-based orchestra hunkered down to survive the pandemic. Since then, SoNA has accomplished a checklist of firsts, including its first album, which will be released June 9.