History
The 2009/2010 Concert Series serves as the inaugural season for the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. It is fitting that this also celebrates the 101st anniversary of Evergreen Christian Community, the concert music venue in which the Concert Series takes place. Evergreen Christian Community (ECC) has been a fervent supporter of the arts since its inception holding a long tradition of various artistic events throughout its history. Now, it reaches out even further with the launching of a professional orchestra as well as a community chorus, both serving the mission to use the highest level of artistic excellence to inspire people throughout the surrounding communities through engaging musical experiences.
The Capital Philharmonic is an auditioned group of musicians from all over the surrounding South Sound area and beyond, coming as far west as Grays Harbor, as far south as Chehalis and as far north as Seattle. Our community chorus is made up of local South Sound residents who have a passion for live, choral music. All of these people make up the fabric of our communities serving as teachers, government officials and workers, business owners, service providers and the like. They all believe that with talent comes sacrifice and so they work very diligently and sacrifice large amounts of time and effort to bring to the community artistic events of great quality and passion.
Seth Winterhalter began his tenure as Artistic Director of the Evergreen Concert Series in 2005 and is the founding Music Director of the Capital Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus. His passion and zeal for the local community has spread like wild fire to the musicians as well as the patrons of the Concert Series events. The Concert Series is one of the fastest growing arts organizations in the area leaping from two annual concerts in 2005 with an attendances in the low hundreds to nine concerts during the 09/10 Season with over 4,500 people in attendance.
The Concert Series believes in inspiring all people, not just artists, into breaking out of the status quo and furthering their creative capacity in life. Because of this they founded the School of the Arts (SOTA) in 2006 which offers artistic classes of all kinds to students of all ages, including private and group classes in piano, guitar, percussion, strings, woodwinds, brass, photography, drawing, sculpting, creative writing and much more.
As you can see, the arts are very much alive and vibrant in the South Sound region and it is the Capital Philharmonic's vision to see local communities strengthened and inspired on to greatness through our pursuit of artistic excellence at the highest level.