The RCO, founded in 1988, is an all-volunteer ensemble devoted to their music and their community. Many of its members have lived in Reston for more than 20 years and have been playing their instruments even longer.

Member Joellyn Kinzer started the group in her Reston living room. Kinzer, 65, has been playing the cello since she was 13 years old and moved to Reston in 1971. She refers to founder Bob Simon by name when enumerating her reasons for loving the community, listing such Reston treasures as its footpaths and the GRACE (Greater Reston Arts Center) gallery. “I don’t think there’s anything quite like it,” she said.

The RCO have been toiling to achieve the same kind of prominence as, say, GRACE or the community center.

“For some reason, no matter what we’ve done, we have not been able to get people to know whom we are,” said Fleary, who moved to Reston from New York in 1969. For many years, the orchestra performed in area churches but doing so limited its audiences, Fleary said.

The Reston Community Orchestra is entirely self-supporting, which, according to Kinzer, is rare when compared to other community orchestras. The members even provide free refreshments—often homebaked goods—to attendees after performances. “This year we are really trying to let people know that we're here,” Kinzer said.

But, as many of the players will attest, audience numbers are growing. “We had to add an extra row of chairs,” said orchestra president Lloyd Kinzer, 65, of its Martin Luther King Jr. celebration concert.

The Reston Community Center was a fitting setting for the Jan. 15 performance, as the musicians played for residents against the backdrop of children's drawings from Hunters Woods Elementary School for the Arts & Sciences. Denver Lovett, who came to the performance with his wife, a regular audience member, had never attended a performance before.

“This is my first time, but it won’t be the last,” said Lovett, a Reston resident since 1971.



Bringing out the best

Members attribute the flourish in attendance to Fleary's leadership.

“If you've ever danced with someone who can really dance, that's the same way with Dingwall and his conducting; he really leads you to play so beautifully,” Joellyn Kinzer said.

“He's classy, very knowledgeable and a lot of fun to be with,” musician Carol Sheppard said.

"He has such a positive and upbeat attitude—apart from being a musician, he's a great and positive leader,” Lloyd Kinzer said.

Fleary's leadership includes initiating outreach programs to area schools. A former teacher, he recognizes the importance of involving educators and students as an integral part of a community organization. The ensemble recently implemented a project that provides young musicians with the opportunity to play in the orchestra.

Dave Tiller, the orchestra manager, discovered one of the players' youngest members, Alyse Frisbee, 17, at a Christmas Eve church service. Frisbee is a harpist, but there is little opportunity for her rare, instrumental talent at South Lakes High School where she is a student.

In addition to inviting guest musicians like Frisbee, Fleary’s knack for impelling the best from his musicians also helps improve performances, suggested Sheppard, a vibrant 60-year-old violinist.

But how does he do it?

“Body language—he feels the music, too,” Joellyn Kinzer said. “I remember there was one conductor, he was from the military, and he was just like this ... ,” in pantomiming movements that suggested the conductor was feeling the beat of a marching snare drum meant to keep soldiers in line.

Sheppard agreed. “He can get the best out of us without screaming at us. Some directors feel like they have to berate you to get you to play it right.”



Stretching our ears

Lloyd Kinzer believes it is Fleary’s program choices that best highlight the musicians' talents. “They [musicians] enjoy the exposure to the music he brings to which they have not been previously exposed,” he said.

This is Fleary’s trademark—his unusual repertoire encourages listeners and players alike to broaden their minds and ears. “I try to make people realize there is music written since the 17th and 18th centuries,” he said.

Tiller, a Reston resident since 1989, said he marvels at how Fleary culls programs, which seem to be very different from each other, and harmoniously weaves them together. "He picks the stuff that you seldom get to play," said the 51-year-old handbell player.

For Fleary, this is the essence of a true music lover. As he sat back in his chair in somber reflection, he iterated American composer Charles Ives: “'We’ve got to learn to stretch our ears.'”

Besides a zealous commitment to their community, mutual respect and admiration seem to be the real oil that keeps this orchestral machine running. The fondness with which the players speak about Fleary is reciprocated as Fleary, too, speaks in awe of the orchestra’s dedication to its craft.

“To have people from all walks of life give up the kind of time that they do, to learn repertoire that isn’t terribly easy,” Fleary said, “I think that’s a tremendous statement about what a volunteer orchestra ought to be ... they come for the love of it.”