Welcome to a new season with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra!
Each concert of the 2023/2024 year brings its own unique musical narrative to life. From thrills and adventure to knowledge, inspiration, and the joy of collaboration, this stunning season is alive with diverse artistry and high spirits!
- Expect to hit the ground running in September with “Lights, Camera, Action!”. This concert is filled with powerful scores from the silver screen.
- October continues the energetic momentum with “Passports, Please!” – a global symphonic tour guided by Maestro Richard Prior.
- In December, “Jolly Jingles” celebrates the season in a festive and family-oriented new way. Holidays are definitely better with children involved, so anticipate a delightful diversion at this concert!
- Let’s see what develops as the new year begins! The upcoming 2024 Young Artists Competition winner will appear at our March concert, “Inspire”. This concert includes the annual side-by-side with the LSYO and also honors the great composer, William Dawson, as we present his landmark folk symphony.
- April’s joyful concert “All the World’s a Stage” is an epic salute to Broadway. The LSO will join forces with the Choral Society of West Georgia to crown the 2023/24 year with an exuberant season finale. Wonderful!
Delight in the adventures we have planned, as you discover new favorites and savor beloved classics. Our aim is to exceed your expectations at every concert. Don’t wait, order your season tickets now. Thank you for your continued support of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra.
Tickets are available!
Our next concert performance, entitled Jolly Jingles, is December 12th, 7:30 PM in Callaway Auditorium, and tickets are on sale now. Callaway Auditorium is a wonderful acoustic venue that offers superior sound quality in every section.
You may purchase tickets online HERE, or you may contact our box office through email or by telephone.
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.)
Lights, Camera, Action!
September 19, 2023
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
Thrillers, Secret Agents, Space, and Orchestral Magic
John Barry
Jay Chattaway
Bill Conti
Alexander Courage
Jerry Goldsmith
Marvin Hamlisch
Gustav Holst
Dennis McCarthy
Paul and Linda McCartney
Monty Norman
Richard Prior
Lalo Schifrin
John Williams
Passports, Please!
October 24, 2023
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
Vibrant Musical Countries
The Wonder of Cultural Identity
Aaron Copland
Édouard Lalo
Arturo Márquez
Erik Satie
Jean Sibelius
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Jolly Jingles
December 12, 2023
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
A Family Holiday Celebration with some Jolly Jingle Fun Mixed In
Inspire
March 19, 2024
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
Harmonious Inspiration
Lifelong Learning & New Discoveries
2024 Young Artists Competition winning pianist
Side-by-side with the LSYO
William Dawson
All the World’s a Stage
Saturday, April 27th, 2024
7:30 PM, Callaway Auditorium
All the World’s a (Broadway) Stage!
Selections from Iconic Shows
Instrumental Selections,
Great Choruses, and Solos
from Broadway’s Greatest Shows
An entire spectrum of thrilling experiences!
Tuesday, September 19, 2023 – LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
For the celebratory opening of the season, our program features music of the silver screen, and works that have influenced or been influenced by the powerful scores that are now central to the American global cultural canon. The two-part program begins with Thrillers and Secret Agents – experience everything the secret message encoded into the theme from Mission Impossible to music from Jurassic Park! The second half, Adventures in Space and Worlds of Magic, includes music from Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. Did you know our own Maestro Prior is also a Pulitzer-nominated, award-winning composer? The closing work on the program is a chance to hear his tone-poem, “…of shadow and light… (incantations for orchestra),” written for and recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Robert Spano. This piece has also been performed by symphony orchestras in Chicago, Baltimore, and Houston, and was a recipient of the 2021 American Prize and the prestigious Ernst Bacon Memorial Award!
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 – PASSPORTS, PLEASE!
Music has the power to not only evoke emotion and nostalgia, but also cultural identity. The LSO will travel through some of the most vibrant countries in the world, with music that immediately captures the nuances of cultures that make up our diverse world. From the great plains of the United States, the fiery fervor of Latin America and the elegance of France, we conclude this program with Maestro Prior’s critically acclaimed interpretation of R. Vaughan William’s first purely orchestral major work, Symphony no. 2: A London Symphony. Maestro Prior says “I first conducted this work thirty-two years ago in 1991 as part of a Vaughan William’s festival at the University of Nottingham. Vaughan Williams had received an honorary doctorate in music from the University, ironically the same degree that I was then working towards myself! There is so much communicated in the music as he paints a musical portrait of the great city of London, a capital that I spent much time in as I grew up less than an hour away in Kent. It is immensely helpful to understand the imagery in the music at that level to bring a truly compelling and authentic interpretation to the audience.” Our LSO patrons definitely need to take advantage of this unique perspective and hear this performance!
Tuesday, December 12, 2023 — JOLLY JINGLES, A Family Holiday Celebration
The wonderful young string musicians of the LaGrange Symphony Youth Orchestra and select winds and percussion of the adult orchestra will combine to perform a family concert under the baton of LSYO conductor, Michael Giel, presenting a performance of vibrant, entertaining works for our family audience. Also appearing will be the younger musicians of the String Ensemble to share their own gift to the community. This will be a terrific opportunity to hear remarkable LaGrange talent on our stage, emceed by LSO Music Director and Conductor, Richard Prior!
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 – INSPIRE
The LSYO will join their adult counterparts in a side-by-side performance to open this concert. The winner of the Dorothy Allen Turner First Place Award in the 2024 Young Artists Competition to be held in early February will perform the winning musical selection. The competition, which rotates between strings, brass, and piano will be a piano competition in 2024.
The symphonic highlight of this concert will be a beautiful symphony completed in 1934 by African American composer William Dawson (1899-1990), an Alabama native who attended Tuskegee Institute. After completing a master’s degree from the American Conservatory of Music and a ten-year absence where he pursued additional music opportunities, he returned to Tuskegee Institute and developed the Tuskegee Institute Choir into an internationally renowned ensemble. Dawson, a composer, choir director, professor, and musicologist, named his symphony Negro Folk Symphony and referred to the piece as a symbolic link uniting Africa and her rich heritage with her descendants in America. The symphony debuted in Carnegie Hall in a performance by the Philadelphia Symphony and was received with much acclaim and multiple “call backs to the stage.” Although Dawson achieved much in his long life and musical career and is an extremely well-known and well-respected composer of choral music, he never wrote another symphony. A 2020 recording of this symphony by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra demonstrates the beauty and power of this music.
Saturday, April 25, 2024 – ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE – Guest Artists – Choral Society of West Georgia
We started our journey with music from the silver screen. In our grand season finale, the LSO joins forces with artistic partners, the Choral Society of West Georgia, in a program celebrating music from Broadway. Instrumental selections, great choruses, and solos from iconic shows in the great American tradition that has defined generations! Additional guest soloists will be invited to participate in this wonderful evening.
Save the Dates!
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Saturday, April 27, 2024
If you noticed that April’s season finale concert is on a Saturday, that is correct. Please mark your calendar!
(All of the other concerts are on our normal Tuesday night.)
If you have additional questions, feel free to contact the Box Office at 706.882.0662 or email boxoffice@lagrangesymphony.org.
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