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<p>Pianist Shai Wosner doesn&#8217;t want to sound too flowery, but he admits he adores the music of Ludwig von Beethoven.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like water, like vitamins. You can&#8217;t live without it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard for me to think about music without Beethoven.&#8221;</p><p>As the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic opens its season Sept. 17 in Scranton and Sept. 18 in Kingston, music lovers can share Wosner&#8217;s enthusiasm as they listen to Beethoven&#8217;s Overture to &#8220;The Creatures of Prometheus,&#8221; the &#8220;Eroica&#8221; Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 3.</p><p>Wosner, who is based in New York City, will play the concerto as guest artist and said he is looking forward to it.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s not a single note that you don&#8217;t believe,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s nothing fake about it. There&#8217;s something about it that sounds like timeless truth, etched in stone, yet very much alive. I find something new every time I go back to these pieces.&#8221;</p><p>Nancy Sanderson, executive director of the Philharmonic, is eager to hear Wosner&#8217;s interpretation.</p><p>&#8220;He is a remarkable player and a real Beethoven expert,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He really &#8216;gets&#8217; Beethoven.&#8221;</p><p>Sanderson also is excited this season about showcasing &#8220;heroic&#8221; music, starting with Beethoven&#8217;s &#8220;Eroica&#8221; tribute to the heroism of humanity and continuing in November with Dimitri Shostakovich&#8217;s courageous compositions, crafted under the disapproving government of Joseph Stalin.</p><p>This season, she added, Philharmonic audiences will be welcomed to some new venues, which she hopes will make the orchestra and its music more accessible to more people.</p><p>The Sept. 17 concert, at 8 p.m., will be in the refurbished Theater at North, 1539 N. Main Ave., Scranton, which some may recognize as the former North Scranton Junior High School building, and Sunday&#8217;s concert, at 3 p.m., will take place in Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center for the Creative Arts on Sprague Avenue in Kingston.</p><p>Sanderson predicts concert goers will enjoy these smaller venues because they will be so close to the orchestra.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a much better connection between the audience and musicians,&#8221; she said.</p><p>The other three concerts in the Masterworks Series, all continuing the heroic theme, will alternate between the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Wilkes-Barre and The Theatre at Lackawanna College in Downtown Scranton, venues the Philharmonic has used before.</p><p>As for the PNC Pops Series, &#8220;Wicked Divas&#8221; on Oct. 8, &#8220;A Night at the Oscars&#8221; on Feb. 4 and &#8220;The Piano Men&#8221; with music of Billy Joel and Elton John on April 1 will all be held in the Keystone Grand Ballroom at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Highway 315, Plains Township.</p><p>&#8220;You can go for dinner beforehand, have drinks afterward, stay overnight,&#8221; Sanderson said, listing a few options. &#8220;We&#8217;re providing an experience rather than offering a traditional symphonic model.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;If people have been reluctant to buy tickets in winter because of the possibility of snow,&#8221; she added, &#8220;valet parking (at the casino) changes everything.&#8221;</p><p>Sanderson recently welcomed several new musicians to the Philharmonic as well as new members to the board of directors, and said they&#8217;re committed to helping the orchestra survive.</p><p>&#8220;To have organizations like this is a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow,&#8221; said new board member Chris Simpler, of Hawley. &#8220;It makes for a better community.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic will open its 2016-2017 season Sept. 17-18 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_philharm.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic will open its 2016-2017 season Sept. 17-18 </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_shaiwosner.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wosner </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/web1_shaiwosner.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wosner </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic to open season with Beethoven