The Salisbury Symphony will begin it 43rd season with a North Carolina premiere on Oct. 24, 2009.
Music Director David Hagy has titled the first concert after the North Carolina premiere piece, “Chasing Light …,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Joseph Schwantner. The Salisbury Symphony is proud to participate in the second round of Ford Made in America, the largest orchestral commissioning consortium in the country’s history.
Music Director Hagy has planned a program full of “light” themes to complement Schwantner’s composition, including a Concerto for Clarinet featuring the Symphony’s principal clarinetist Eileen Young entitled the “City of Light” Concerto, and two other works dealing with the sun, Nielsen’s “Helios” Overture and Haydn’s “Noon” Symphony. The program promises to be an “enlightening” experience.
The rest of the season is as follows:
The always popular Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” featuring Piedmont Dance Theater, will have two performances, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 19 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 20.
The North Carolina Symphony with conductor William Henry Curry presents “Visiting Vienna” with music by Johann Strauss Jr., Shoenberg and Schubert, 7:30 p.m., Jan. 30.
There is a “dancing” family concert on Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. as the Piedmont Dance Theatre returns to present “Peter and the Wolf.”
On March 20 at 7:30 p.m., the concert theme is “Breaking Tradition” with Brahms’ “Haydn Variations, Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony No. 6 and Barber’s “Capricorn” Concerto featuring some of the symphony’s regular players as soloists: Carla Copeland-Burns, flute; Greg Hall, trumpet; and Anna Lampidis Glantz, oboe.
The pops concert May 10 has the intriguing title “Solving Mysteries” and will feature the All-County Fifth Grade Honors Chorus.
All concerts are in Keppel Auditorium at Catawba College except the March 20 concert, which will be held in Varick Auditorium at Livingstone College.
Pops at the Post, the annual free outdoor symphony concert at the Salisbury Post’s loading dock, will be back June 5, 2010.
For more information or to order a season brochure, call 704-637-4314, or visit www.salisburysymphony.org.