New Season Ignites with a Spectacular Evening Undaunted by Rain
As concert time approached on September 22, a few scattered thunderstorms rolled through LaGrange, Georgia. Luckily, the rain eased right before people arrived. By the time the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra took the stage the excitement of a new concert and new season were foremost in our minds.
Symphony Spectacular marked the opening of the LSO’s 2026–2027 season, The Moments of Music, and the evening offered plenty of moments worth remembering.
As we found our seats, a new overhead projector in Callaway Auditorium made a striking difference from last season. The LSO’s sponsor slideshow appeared with remarkable clarity. Because of this upgrade, we could read descriptions of the various funds that support the LSO—information that had been difficult to see before. Interspersed among the sponsor slides were photos from the April concert, revealing smiling faces and happy memories. What a difference! It was wonderful to see audience members recognize their friends and point out those happy memories to one another.
The printed program featured guest pianist Ruxi Wang on its cover and welcomed audiences into the new season with thoughts from the LSO Executive Director about the special connections that live performance creates among artists, musicians, and audiences.
To welcome everyone on this special opening night, the new LSO President, Clara Keith Brown, set a warm tone for the evening. Her comments and bright smile reflected the excitement of beginning a new season together. She thanked sponsors and welcomed both longtime patrons and those joining the LSO for the first time.
Tradition Endures
Opening another concert season in traditional fashion, the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Richard Prior, began with a rousing rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner. The audience stood and sang together. Though familiar, the tradition never loses its meaning, and hearing the audience join together in song remains a stirring way to begin the season.
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
In no time, the opening strains of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture filled the auditorium. This was an appropriately spirited way for the LSO to say: the new season has begun!
Although this composer’s work is no stranger to the LSO repertoire, this particular piece, Festive Overture, is a new addition to the programming, giving the audience a fresh opportunity to hear Shostakovich’s distinctive musical voice.
Written in 1954 for a concert marking the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution, the overture is best described as, music in motion—bright, energetic, and filled with the kind of rhythmic momentum that makes an orchestra sound larger than life. Brass fanfares announce the opening, while the strings and winds propel the music forward toward its exuberant conclusion.
The LSO embraced that energy from the very first notes, building the excitement through the rapid exchanges between sections and bringing the overture to a thrilling finish. The orchestra captured its rhythmic drive with precision and clarity, making it a fitting way to begin the evening.
Ruxi Wang Returns to the LSO
This evening’s guest appearance brought pianist Ruxi Wang back to the LSO stage. Ruxi is already familiar to the LSO audience as the orchestra’s 2024 Young Artist Competition winner, making her return especially meaningful for those who have had the opportunity to watch her musical growth.
She entered with her brilliant smile and a striking gown in lavender and champagne tones. The audience warmly welcomed her as she made her way to the piano.
Ruxi joined the orchestra for Benjamin Britten’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (rev. 1945), a work organized in four contrasting movements: Toccata, Waltz, Impromptu, and March. The concerto asks the pianist to move through very different musical personalities, from the rapid-fire energy of the Toccata to the more reflective Impromptu and the sharp character of the concluding March.
Ruxi handled those changes with confidence and expressive range. Her playing brought both precision and personality to Britten’s score. The LSO’s dynamic interaction was equally impressive. Supporting a soloist in a work like this requires the orchestra to maintain its own energy while responding constantly to the pianist and the shifting character of the music.
For those who first encountered Ruxi through the Young Artist Competition, hearing her now as a more mature performer offered its own special moment: a chance to witness where that earlier opportunity has led. We hope there will be more moments of music ahead for this talented young artist and our audience.
Brahms: Symphony No. 3
After intermission, the evening turned to Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 in F major (ed. Robert Pascall), bringing a different character and depth to the second half of the program.
For Maestro Richard Prior, this performance carried a personal connection. Before the concert, he shared through social media, that Robert Pascall, the editor of the edition used for this performance, had been one of his professors while he was a postgraduate student at the University of Nottingham. Pascall was also a leading authority on Brahms and, as Prior put it, gave him his pathway into orchestral conducting. Reflecting on the upcoming performance, Prior wrote that Pascall’s “passionate wisdom permeates the score,” adding that he hoped to do justice to his mentor, his LSO colleagues, and Brahms.
That connection gave the performance an added sense of purpose. Brahms’ Third Symphony is richly layered, moving between strength, tenderness, intensity and reflection. Its themes seem to emerge, develop, and return with subtle changes of character, asking both musicians and listeners to pay close attention to what lies beneath the surface.
The LSO met those demands with a performance that rewarded that attention. The strings brought warmth and depth to Brahms’ writing, while the winds and brass added color and weight at key moments. The music built naturally through passages of greater intensity, then drew back into quieter, more intimate exchanges.
For Prior, conducting this work was more than presenting a Brahms symphony. It seemed to be an opportunity to bring the musical wisdom of a formative mentor into the hands of a new generation of musicians. For the audience, it became another of the evening’s memorable moments—and a fitting way to close the first concert of the new season.
The audience’s warm response brought Prior back to the stage for a second bow. As he returned to the podium, the applause offered a final moment of appreciation for the conductor, the musicians, and the music that had brought everyone together.
Listen Differently to What Comes Next
With the opening concert behind us, the season now moves into October with Rhapsodies & Dances, featuring mezzo-soprano Emily Landa Levin and the Sons of Lafayette male choir. The program will explore music shaped by rhythm, movement, color, and the distinctive character of the rhapsody and dance.
If Symphony Spectacular was any indication, this season will offer plenty of reasons to listen differently—to notice the details, the connections, and the unexpected moments that emerge when musicians and audiences share the same space.
The rain may have made the journey to the first concert a little hurried. But once the music began, the evening belonged entirely to the moments that brought us together.
The “moments of music” continue in the next concert on October 27 with Rhapsodies & Dances. [Read more about the LSO’s October 27th concert HERE]
© LaGrange Symphony Orchestra 2026/2027 | All rights reserved | 706.882.0662 | Richard Prior, Music Director & Conductor
