{"id":292,"date":"2017-02-26T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2017-04-24T15:01:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T19:01:12","slug":"an-exciting-season-awaits-symphony-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.courtneylewis.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/an-exciting-season-awaits-symphony-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"An exciting season awaits Symphony fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, we announced the Jacksonville Symphony\u2019s 2017-18 season, and you may have read about the new five-year contract signed with our musicians earlier this month. We\u2019re increasing musicians\u2019 salaries to levels that match our peers, adding six full-time musicians to the orchestra, and increasing the orchestra\u2019s season from 35 to 38 weeks. Last season, we increased our classical weekends from 10 to 12, and next season we\u2019ll expand again to 13 with the addition of Fanfare, a single season-opening concert. It\u2019s a thrill to be working with an orchestra, staff and board that are committed to building the best symphony for you, right here in Jacksonville.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the heart of the season you\u2019ll hear many beloved masterpieces. Something about writing a Fifth symphony inspired many composers to great heights, and we\u2019re featuring several such pinnacles: you can look forward to Fifths by Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Sibelius and Shostakovich. I\u2019m especially excited about an evening of Brahms\u2019s Third Symphony followed by Bruckner\u2019s breath-taking Seventh. We\u2019ll perform Beethoven\u2019s \u201cEroica,\u201d Tchaikovsky\u2019s First Piano Concerto, Barber\u2019s Adagio for Strings and a host of other linchpins of the repertoire.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a strong believer in performing the music of today. It\u2019s how we stay relevant, and it\u2019s how we understand ourselves in the present. I\u2019m amazed by how many younger audience members tell me they love the range of new music we\u2019re playing. Often it\u2019s their favorite piece on the program. We\u2019ve scheduled our first co-commission, a cello concerto by American composer Lowell Liebermann for May 2018, and I\u2019m looking forward to works by the Englishman Jonathan Harvey and the Brooklyn-based Timo Andres. There\u2019s a huge chunk of repertoire that is no longer new but that hasn\u2019t been heard yet in Jacksonville, and you won\u2019t want to miss our concerts with Jan\u00e1\u010dek\u2019s tone poem \u201cTaras Bulba,\u201d Schoenberg\u2019s terrifying \u201cFive Pieces for Orchestra\u201d and Nielsen\u2019s irrepressible \u201cInextinguishable Symphony.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This season saw the return of opera with a semi-staged production of Humperdinck\u2019s \u201cHansel and Gretel.\u201d Next year, we\u2019re presenting a fully-staged production of Mozart\u2019s beautiful and terrifying tale of passion, lust and revenge, \u201cDon Giovanni.\u201d We\u2019ll perform with the action taking place on a stage built behind the orchestra. You\u2019ll be able to see the Jacksonville Symphony onstage while watching a world-class cast in a thrilling production designed especially for the glorious acoustics of Jacoby Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re welcoming a trio of esteemed guest conductors. Fabio Mechetti will return to lead the Symphony and Chorus in Faur\u00e9\u2019s beloved \u201cRequiem\u201d and Berlioz\u2019s revolutionary \u201cSymphonie Fantastique.\u201d And two brilliant young conductors, Sergey Neller and Kazem Abdullah, will lead neo-classical and American programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The caliber of guest artists working with the Jacksonville Symphony continues to climb. Earlier this month, I was delighted to hear how astonished superstar pianist Lang Lang was by the level at which our orchestra plays. Word is getting out, and next season will feature world-famous artists including pianist Jonathan Biss, violinist Anthony Marwood and an impressive range of singers. Our season will end with what I think is the most artistically ambitious project we\u2019ve undertaken so far: an hour of orchestral and operatic excerpts from the final opera from Wagner\u2019s \u201cRing\u201d: G\u00f6tterd\u00e4mmerung, or \u201cThe Twilight of the Gods.\u201d For this we welcome two of the finest dramatic singers alive today: soprano Christine Brewer and tenor Jay Hunter Morris. I can\u2019t tell you how inspiring it will be to work with such artists. Those concerts might just be topped by one even more special night, our Gala, which will feature soprano Rene\u00e9 Fleming, the queen of American sopranos with a voice many of us have loved for decades. Her appearance in Jacksonville will be the icing on the cake.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, a season jam-packed with treats for every kind of music lover. Just don\u2019t forget there are still many wonderful concerts in our current season, which isn\u2019t a whole lot less exciting. See you soon at Jacoby Symphony Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted with kind permission of The Florida-Times Union. Originally published at:\u00a0http:\/\/jacksonville.com\/entertainment\/arts\/2017-02-26\/conducting-electricity-exciting-season-awaits-symphony-fans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, we announced the Jacksonville Symphony\u2019s 2017-18 season, and you may have read about the new five-year contract signed with our musicians earlier this month. We\u2019re increasing musicians\u2019 salaries to levels that match our peers, adding six full-time musicians to the orchestra, and increasing the orchestra\u2019s season from 35 to 38 weeks. Last season, we increased our classical weekends from 10 to 12, and next season we\u2019ll expand again to 13 with the addition of Fanfare, a single season-opening concert. It\u2019s a thrill to be working with an orchestra, staff and board that are committed to building the best symphony for you, right here in Jacksonville. At the heart of the season you\u2019ll hear many beloved masterpieces. Something about writing a Fifth symphony inspired<\/p>\n

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