FROM THE PODIUM:
I am delighted to be entering my 10th season as Music Director and Conductor of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra! This is a landmark period for me leading the Orchestra. However, the LSO’s 2024/25 season is a broader, more meaningful celebration of ten years of artistic collaboration and organizational growth. This milestone belongs to all of us and recognizes the multi-stakeholder partnership between conductor, musicians, our executive director, board of directors, and you, our wonderful patrons from across the region. Congratulations to all!
It is with great enthusiasm that I anticipate this next season. It contains some of the great music I conducted in my first years with the LSO, as well as wonderful selections that will be brought to our stage for the first time! These are truly fabulous works and are chosen especially for you.
Please join us as we enter a “season of celebration” of our beloved LaGrange Symphony Orchestra!
Welcome to a new season with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra!
Our Season of Celebration is a fantastic collection of great works.
- All the pageantry of this American Fanfare concert will be perfect for the grand opening concert. You will notice all the great American composers in this concert, one of which is Joseph Wood – his daughter is our own Lorna Wood, who retired from her concertmaster position at the end of last season. Plus we will be joined onstage by guest artist, tenor Jonathan Pilkington!
- Reflect in reverie, be Composed and Collected. We are thrilled to welcome to the stage LSO’s Principal Horn, the wonderful Anne-Marie Cherry, as our guest artist. A lyrical oasis that compounds into a brilliant and energetic finale!
- This Holiday Celebration is complete with Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and other national and international holiday treasures. With special guests that will bring sparkle to this seasonal celebration.
- A musical feast at the table of Joy of Italy. Our annual LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra side-by-side experience, along with another winning performance from the latest Young Artists Competition champion. Plus Mendelssohn’s “Italian” symphony for dessert.
- Special guest, mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas will grace the LSO stage. Music of the Night offers dramatic and magical storytelling and will be an incredibly special end to the season!
Delight in the adventures we have planned, as you discover new favorites and savor beloved classics. More concert season details below.
Our aim is to exceed your expectations at every concert. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW! Thank you for your continued support of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets are available!
Season Tickets are on sale ONLY until September 17th. They are a pre-season offer which includes the full series of five concerts at a significant savings.
Previous season ticket holders – You may mail your ticket order with payment to our office using the form on the brochure you received in the mail or call our office to purchase your same seats.
Note: Your previous seats are only held until August 15th, after that date they are opened for purchase publicly.
NEW season tickets can additionally be purchased online! Once you go to either the season ticket page or the individual concert ticket page its easy to switch between the two from a top menu button. You may purchase any combination of tickets this way. Season tickets are only available until the first concert date (September 17th).
Purchase NEW season tickets online HERE .
Single concert tickets are available at any time during the year until they sell out.
Here are the concerts and dates of the full season:
American Fanfare – September 17, 2024
Composed & Collected – October 29, 2024
A Holiday Celebration – December 10, 2024
Joy of Italy – March 25, 2025
Music of the Night – April 29, 2025
Regular tickets for single concerts are available online HERE.
email: boxoffice@lagrangesymphony.org
telephone: 706.882.0662
An auditorium graphic is provided here for your convenience. (You can click the image to view a larger version.)
Five Concerts
American Fanfare
September 17, 2024
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
~uniquely American with breathtaking works by great American composers of the last century
Francis Scott Key: Star-Spangled Banner
John Williams: Olympic Fanfare and Theme (1984)
Joseph Wood: Poem for Orchestra
Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 – with Jonathan Pilkington, tenor
Howard Hanson: Symphony No. 2 (Romantic)
Composed & Collected
October 29, 2024
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
~an oasis of lyrical calm and exquisite beauty
Brahms: St. Anthony Variations
Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 – with Anne-Marie Cherry
Borodin: Symphony No. 2
A Holiday Celebration
December 10, 2024
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
~experience this glittering seasonal joy-ride!
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite No. 1
Leroy Anderson: Sleigh Ride, Bugler’s Holiday
Bill Holcombe: ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
Ballard: Suite from Polar Express -arranged by Alan Silvestri, and more!
-with guests including The Callaway High School Cavalier’s Chorus
Tom Kennedy: Traditional Carol Medley
Joy of Italy
March 25, 2025
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
~indulge with this effervescent musical feast from Italian ingredients
Side-by-Side Experience -The LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra together with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra
Bizet: Carmen Suite No. 1
1st Place Winner of the 2024/25 Young Artist Competition
(a wind soloist will perform with the LSO)
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 in A major (Italian)
Music of the Night
April 29th, 2025
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
~a tour de force of energetic lyricism
Beethoven: Overture to Fidelio
Elgar: Sea Pictures -with Daveda Karanas, mezzo-soprano
Lloyd Webber: Symphonic Suites
♦ Evita
♦ Phantom of the Opera
Concert notes from the Maestro:
Tuesday, September 17, 2024 – American Fanfare!
The grand opening of the season presents breathtaking works by some of the great American composers of the last century. Following our rousing National Anthem, we continue with John William’s electrifying Olympic Fanfare and Theme, composed for the opening of 1984 Olympic games held in Los Angeles Olympics. It has all the brilliance of his well-known film scores and immediately establishes the uniquely American flavor of our program. Composer Joseph Wood had a major career, teaching at Oberlin from 1950 to 1985, following musical training at Juilliard, service in the U.S. Army, and a Master’s degree from Columbia. He wrote many solo works, numerous chamber music pieces, and four symphonies, and his music has been performed around the world. It is a profound pleasure to share his much-lauded Poem for Orchestra from 1950. Of particular note for us is that his daughter is long-time LSO concertmaster, Lorna Wood, who retired at the end of last season! The two other major composers on the program were direct contemporaries of Joseph Wood, and we are delighted to present Samuel Barber’s beautiful Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with guest artist, tenor Jonathan Pilkington, and Howard Hanson’s stunning Symphony No. 2, the “Romantic”.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 – Composed & Collected
Unquestionably, music has the power to inspire and bring forth the full range of human emotion, often taking us on a journey within the space and time of one piece or even a single phrase. The works on this program certainly provide some dramatic contrasts, but at their heart, there is always an oasis of lyrical calm and exquisite beauty; this is music where we can reflect in reverie, be composed and collected. The serenity of Brahms’ St. Anthony Variations is complimented by Strauss’ iconic Horn Concerto No. 1, and we are thrilled to welcome to the stage the LSO’s Principal Horn, the wonderful Anne-Marie Cherry as our guest artist for this work. Borodin’s Symphony No. 2 is a great example of that rich and fulfilling emotional journey – from the profound, powerful and declamatory drama of the first movement, we are led into the playful light of the second movement’s scherzo, then to that poignantly lyrical oasis of composure in the third movement, and finally to surely one of the most brilliant and energetic finales in the world of the symphony. How so much is contained in just a thirty-minute composition speaks to the unparalleled quality of music as an expression of human creativity.
Tuesday, December 10, 2024 –A Holiday Celebration
Join the LSO and very special guests, including the Callaway High School Cavalier’s Chorus, for this glittering seasonal celebration! No performance at this time of year would be complete without selections from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, the national treasures of Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride and Bugler’s Holiday, or a rendition of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas! Come and hear music from The Polar Express and even get to sing some of your own favorite Christmas Carols. Our gift to you – celebrate the holiday season with your LSO!
Tuesday, March 25, 2024 – Joy of Italy
The ingredients for this musical feast are rich and varied! The members of LSYO join with the LSO for the annual side-by-side performance, led by conductor Michael Giel. The program will also feature the winner of our acclaimed Young Artist’s Competition that for many years has brought outstanding young musicians from Georgia and surrounding states to Callaway Auditorium to perform with the LSO. In addition to the winner’s artistry enriching our musical experience, they benefit from an invaluable opportunity to advance their own career. After Bizet’s delightfully compact Carmen Suite No. 1, with its many beloved, popular melodies from the opera, the LSO concludes the evening with Mendelssohn’s joyful Symphony No. 4 in A major, the “Italian”. This work, preceded by the so-called “Scottish” Symphony and the Hebrides Overture, was also the product of a European tour Mendelsohn undertook between 1829 and 1831. The places, landscapes and cultures had a profound impact on Mendelssohn’s creativity, and Italy in particular left him bursting with happiness. He wrote to his father “This is Italy! And now has begun what I have always thought – to be the supreme joy in life. And I am loving it!”. In writing to his sister, Fanny (also a great composer and pianist), he expressed “The Italian symphony is making great progress. It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done. Especially the last movement!” Join us for the effervescent Joy of Italy!
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 – Music of the Night
The grand season finale places an emphasis on various ways in which music is a powerful partner in dramatic storytelling. Beethoven wrote just one opera, Fidelio (1805) but was dissatisfied with his first three attempts at the overture, the so-called “Leonore” overtures. The final version we hear on this program was written in 1814, and at just six minutes in length, is a tour de force of energetic lyricism that helps set the stage. For Elgar’s strikingly beautiful song cycle, Sea Pictures, we are joined by special guest artist, mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas. Ms. Karanas has appeared throughout the United States, singing major roles with numerous renowned opera companies, including The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera. Similarly, she also maintains a busy international career and has appeared with The Israeli Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Teatro Real. Her acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut was in 2019 with the Athens Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony. Especially crafted by Andrew Lloyd Webber and premiered in 2021, the LSO finishes the season with the stunning Symphonic Suites of the musicals, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. The suites contain some of the best-loved music of the genre from truly iconic London West End and Broadway shows that ran for decades. You will not want to miss this incredibly special end to the season!
Save the Dates!
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
If you have additional questions, feel free to contact the Box Office at 706.882.0662 or email boxoffice@lagrangesymphony.org.
read, download, print…
See the 2024/25 BROCHURE
We appreciate your support
Thank you for Supporting the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra!
DONATE HERE
Thank you for donating to LaGrange Symphony Orchestra online.