Maestro Michael Gesme leads the Central Oregon Symphony in 2022 at Bend High School. 

When Central Oregon Symphony presents its season finale Spring Concert this Saturday and Sunday at Bend High School, they could mark the last time Maestro Michael Gesme, its longtime music director, conducts concerts in that space.

Gesme and the community orchestra recently learned they will lose access to Bend High’s 1,400-seat auditorium for four years. The high school is set to undergo renovations as part of a $249.7 million bond to improve Bend-La Pine Schools’ buildings. Central Oregon Symphony performs three seasonal concerts annually in the fall, winter and spring in that space, which would not be available again for outside groups to use until the 2028-29 season.

“The odds that I will still be conducting the COS in the fall of 2028 are essentially zero,” Gesme said.

Searching for a space

Gesme and company in the nonprofit community orchestra scrambling for a suitable-sized venue going forward, with far fewer seats for patrons. Most high school auditoriums are in the 600-seat range, Gesme said.

“I totally get this remodel. It’s what they’ve decided to do,” Gesme said. “There are a few of us (arts organizations), we count on a 1,400-seat auditorium, not because we fill it every time — although some do — but because it gives us room to grow, because our audiences are larger than any other auditorium.”

Read more: Bend-La Pine Schools makes progress with 2022 bond projects

He’s not excited by the possibility, and expense of having to do more concerts in 600-seat venues in order to accommodate audiences.

“We’re doing two concerts right now with the potential of 2,800 seats. Usually just south of 2,000 will show up,” he said. “That means I’d have to do three or four concerts in a 600-seat hall in order to do that. That’s asking all of these volunteer musicians, ‘Would you be willing to play this?’ The expense goes up because it’s more concerts, more time.”

Gesme, fairly beloved in the Bend arts community, is in his 28th year at Central Oregon Community College, where he teaches, and which jointly runs and supports the Central Oregon Symphony with the nonprofit Central Oregon Symphony Association. He doesn’t have any immediate plans to depart, but he is also realistic that he may no longer be at the helm come the 2028-29 season — which would be his 33rd — and he doesn’t see himself here that much longer.

“Whether it’s 31 (seasons), whether it’s 29, whether it’s 32, I don’t know, but that’s the deal,” he said.

And what comes after?

As for what would follow, “I don’t know,” he said. With their two children, Zeta and Alex, well into their 20s and living in Vancouver, Canada, and Chicago, respectively, Gesme and his multilinguist wife, Janet, have discussed such possibilities as going overseas so that she can teach English.

There are a lot of possibilities and not many things he’s sure about at this juncture, but Gesme is most certainly excited about the Spring Concert at hand, and as providence has it, his family, Janet (cello), Alex (oboe) and Zeta (cello), will perform on it.

Related story: Hear the Gesmes perform as a quartet

The concert will also feature guest soloist Britton-René Collins, a celebrated percussionist who will perform “Marimba Concerto” by Sergei Golovko. Audiences will also hear the prelude from Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” opera and Sergei Rachmoninoff’s Symphony No. 2, whose third movement inspired Gesme to pursue his orchestra music career — and which he’s wanted to conduct for 35 years.

So if you want to see a local arts giant on the stage he’s helped fill with music for nearly three decades, possibly for the last time, get yourself to Bend High this weekend.

“I’m fond of the place, despite its many flaws,” Gesme said. “I’ve put a lot of time in there.”

If You Go

What: Central Oregon Symphony Spring Concert

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: 230 NE Sixth St., Bend

Cost: Free, but ticket required. Will-call tickets available starting one hour before the performance, or visit cosymphony.com for a list of local music shops and bookstores that carry tickets

Contact: cosymphony.com