John Masko has been involved in orchestral conducting in a variety of forms since graduating from San Francisco Conservatory in 2018.

So when he moved last year to the Upper Valley, where his fiancee is a neuro-oncologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, he quickly tuned into the classical music landscape.

“I was struck by the demand and enthusiasm for classical music up here,” he said, in a recent interview. Upper Valley residents who love orchestral music often will travel great distances to hear it, he said.

Masko hopes to provide those experiences closer to home with the establishment of an Upper Valley Philharmonic Society, an organization he plans to form with like-minded residents. If all goes well, concerts would begin next winter, Masko said.

To that end, Masko wants to hear from anyone interested in helping to form a professional orchestra for the Upper Valley. He’d like to organize a meeting this winter to set up a working board that could begin to raise money, hire an executive director and start planning an initial season.

Masko, 32, is a Providence, R.I., native and Yale graduate who currently serves as music director of the Brockton (Mass.) Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Minneapolis Orchestra. He started playing piano at age 5 and got into choral singing and conducting in college before going to graduate school for conducting.

Since he moved to Lebanon last May, he has spoken with classical music devotees and found that many of them would like more options nearby. Some travel to Nashua for Symphony New Hampshire performances or to Burlington to hear the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Masko said.

A professional orchestra would likely draw musicians from Boston, Albany and farther afield, as well as from the Upper Valley, Masko said. A season would likely include four or five masterworks concerts and two “pops” programs.

The Upper Valley has a growing classical music scene. The Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, which also brings in professional players to augment its population of Dartmouth students, is a fixture, as is Classicopia, a long-running chamber music series. Upper Valley Baroque, which brings in musicians, mainly from the Boston area, to perform early and Baroque music on period instruments, was founded in September 2021. The Upper Valley Music Center organizes the Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra, a volunteer ensemble.

Filippo Ciabatti, who directs the DSO and is artistic director of UV Baroque, declined to comment on the proposal for a new orchestra, but outlined a well-stocked classical music community. More music is always welcome, he said. “In general, I would say yes, there is a very rich classical music offering in the area,” he said in an interview.

Masko sees a region that can support more options.

The population of the four counties of the Upper Valley, Windsor and Orange in Vermont and Sullivan and Grafton in New Hampshire, numbers around 200,000. If Upper Valley residents will make a three-hour round trip to Burlington or Nashua, perhaps it follows that a similar enthusiast would want to drive from, say Holderness, N.H., or Ludlow, Vt., on a January evening for a concert in Lebanon.

The business model for the Upper Valley Phil would follow that of the VSO or Symphony NH, Masko said. Both of those ensembles bring musicians in both from the immediate area and from nearby big cities like Boston and New York.

The existing professional orchestras aren’t exactly alike in terms of their reach. The VSO, founded after an initial meeting in Woodstock in the 1930s and now headquartered in Burlington, performs at venues all over the state. It had expenses of $1.9 million in its 2023 budget year, according to its federal 990 tax form, and enjoys some support from the state. If this season’s program is any indication, Symphony New Hampshire doesn’t travel north of Concord’s Capitol Center for the Arts. It had expenses of $570,000 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, tax records show.

The Upper Valley orchestra would hew more closely to Symphony NH’s model and budget, Masko said.

A professional Upper Valley orchestra could more closely reflect the area’s character, Masko said.

“I find it a sort of unique and beautiful area,” he said.

Programs could focus on American music, but also on pieces that express the beauty of the natural world, he said.

To register interest, contact Masko at uppervalleyphilharmonicsociety@gmail.com.

Looking ahead

Speaking of classical music, there are at least two performances of note on the horizon.

On March 1 and 2, Upper Valley Baroque presents “Great Baroque Duets,” a chamber music program featuring bass soloist Paul Max Tipton and soprano soloist Paulina Francisco with a trio of musicians playing period instruments.

The performances are at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover and at 2 p.m., Sunday, March 2 at North Chapel in Woodstock. For tickets ($35) go to uppervalleybaroque.org.

Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.