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2023-2024 Season Subscriptions

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Why Buy? Build Your Own season and enjoy total flexibility with our signature FlexPass Subscription. Choose between 3, 4, or 5 Masterworks concerts on Friday or Saturday! Purchasing your 2023-2024 season FlexPass is easy! Click here to learn more about the benefits of purchasing a FlexPass!

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Are you ready for Season #62?

Artistic Director & Conductor José-Luis Novo presents

6 Masterworks, 3 Chamber Concerts, 2 Pops in the Park, 1 Holiday Pops, and much more!

 

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The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-2024 season is studded with amazing award – winning Guest Artists, Contemporary & Classic Composers, exciting premières, and added programming. We’ll debut an additional Pops in the Park at Downs Park, three Chamber Music concerts, our annual sell-out concert, Holiday Pops, and more appearances than ever in the community. Subscribe now!

Music to Remember

Simon, Grieg & Pigovat

Masterworks I

Friday & Saturday, September 29 & 30 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM

Carlos Simon        This Land
Grieg        Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, Gabriela Montero, piano
Boris Pigovat         Holocaust Requiem (US Première), Peter Minkler, viola

Masterworks I is an opportunity to showcase the intersection of art and life. The title “Music to Remember” lends weight to the importance of using our individual and collective voices – through spoken word, art, and music – to remember history, to not repeat it, and to lend action in the achievement of social justice, democracy and peace. 

We open with composer Carlos Simon’s This Land, a lush and bright piece that incorporates the national anthems of immigrants to America, representing hope and unity. 

Grieg’s Piano Concerto is the only concerto Grieg completed and remains one of the most popular of the genre. Gabriela Montero will perform as solo pianist. 

The ASO presents the United States première of Boris Pigovat’s “Holocaust Requiem,” in memory of the 1941 Babyn Yar massacre in Kyiv, Ukraine. The première will be performed on the 82nd anniversary of the massacre. Peter Minkler of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will be the featured viola soloist.


A Taste of Spain

Ravel, Revueltas & Rodrigo

Masterworks II
Friday & Saturday, November 3 & 4 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM

Rossini – Overture to Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville)

Rodrigo – Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (Fantasia for a Gentleman) – Pepe Romero, guitar

Revueltas – Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Homage to Federico García Lorca)

Ravel – Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) 

Join the ASO for an evening filled with Mediterranean flair, passionate music, and momentos sin respiración (moments of breathlessness). This evening we present music that’s truly changed the world! 

Revueltas was instrumental in proudly showcasing Latin American folk music and instrumentality to European and American audiences, opening the door for future Latino and Hispanic composers and musicians. Rodrigo’s masterpiece Fantasia para un Gentilhombre was written for Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, with movements that feature the folk music of Baroque-era Spain. Similarly, our guest artist, world-class guitarist Pepe Romero has long served as an ambassador from Spain to music lovers around the globe. He joins the orchestra for Fantasia para un Gentilhombre

Rossini, a natural storyteller, brings to life the humor, passion, and magic of Spain with his Barber of Seville.

We move from Spain and Italy to southern France in a performance of Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose),  a beautiful musical rendering of childhood fairy tales. Ravel originally wrote this piece as a five-movement suite for piano four hands, but in 1911 made an orchestral transcription and expanded the suite into a full-scale ballet. It is this version audiences will experience at Masterworks II. 


Raging Fire

Tchaikovsky & Sibelius

Masterworks III
Friday & Saturday, February 2 & 3 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM | Sunday, February 4 @ Strathmore at 3:00 PM

Series @ Strathmore I

Narong Prangcharoen Raging Fire
Sibelius                        Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, Elissa Lee Koljonen, violin
Tchaikovsky                 Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”

This performance fans the flames of musical passion. Artistic Director and Conductor José-Luis Novo explores the power of fire while using orchestral music to speak to stories of darkness and light.Fire is inextricably linked to the progress of humanity. This evening’s music explores themes of creation, destruction, power, emotion, and passion: all fiery topics!” 

Masterworks III is an opportunity to enjoy great symphonic music created and generated by the heat of fire and passion: a passion for music, for playing, and for life. As we consider the emotional genesis of musical composition, we can also imagine and feel the fire that sustains both writer and player, allowing it to consume us, at least just for the moments we are together. Elissa Lee Koljonen, violinist,  joins the ASO for Masterworks III. 


Portraits

Edgar & Schumann

Masterworks IV
Friday & Saturday, March 1 & 2 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM | Sunday, March 3 @ Strathmore at 3:00 PM

Series @ Strathmore II

Berlioz                   Le carnaval romain Overture, Op. 9
Schumann             Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, Steven Isserlis, cello
Elgar                      Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, “Enigma”

Masterworks IV brings to life beautiful orchestral music as painted by three important composers, all genius musical artists. Berlioz paints the story of two lovers at a Roman street fair; Elgar sketches special moments in the lives of his family and friends. Masterfully using instrumentation, tone and structure, Elgar brings forward the personality and character of his subjects in each portrait; finally, the Schumann Cello Concerto’s transcendental qualities bring us far away from present circumstances.  Steven Isserlis, cellist, joins the ASO for this transformative evening of music. Acclaimed worldwide for his profound musicianship and technical mastery, Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. 


Roman Festivals

Respighi & Beethoven

Masterworks V
Friday & Saturday, April 12 & 13 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM | Sunday, April 14 @ Strathmore at 3:00 PM

Series @ Strathmore III

Nicky Sohn           World Premiere (ASO co-commission)
Beethoven             Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, Awadagin Pratt, piano
Respighi                Feste Romane, P. 157

Expect the Unexpected. It’s more than a slogan. It’s the artistic vision of our Maestro and the incredible talent of our musicians. And it’s the genius of the composers we present this evening, Sohn, Beethoven, and Respighi. 

We begin with a world première from composer Nicky Sohn, the second instance of a co-commissioning project made possible through the partnership “Embracing 21st Century Voices” between the ASO and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Read more about Ms. Sohn´s career and professional performances on our website.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major was his last appearance as a soloist with an orchestra. It’s been called the most admirable, singular, artistic and complex Beethoven concerto ever, and is a favorite of concert audiences. American pianist Awadagin Pratt will join the ASO as the soloist.

Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras. Mr. Pratt is also a conductor, and a strong advocate for music education. A favorite at college and university performing arts series, Mr. Pratt participates in numerous residency and outreach activities wherever he appears. Mr. Pratt has been a frequent visitor as a performer to the White House, most notably during the Clinton and Obama administrations. 

Composer Ottorino Respighi debuted his Feste Romane in 1928. Each movement depicts a scene of celebration in ancient and contemporary Rome, specifically gladiators battling to the death, the Christian Jubilee, a harvest and hunt festival, and a festival in the Piazza Navona.  


This Midnight Hour

Clyne & Sibelius

Masterworks VI
Friday & Saturday, May 10 & 11 @ Maryland Hall at 7:30 PM

Haydn                   Symphony No. 104 in D major, “London”
Anna Clyne          This Midnight Hour
Sibelius                 Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43

We wrap up our season by reminding you of our tagline:  “Expect the Unexpected” by revisiting themes from Masterworks I: identity, freedom, community, and connection to our homeland. Haydn began his career in a tucked-away area of the Austro-Hungarian empire but ended it quite famously and to great accolades with “London”, his last symphony.  Clyne, a contemporary British composer living in New York brings to life beautiful atmospheric poetry through her This Midnight Hour.  Finally Sibelius, widely regarded as Finland’s greatest composer, ends our season with his Symphony No. 2. 

Music is an emotional experience that takes us on a journey: each piece expresses who we are, where we are, who we want to be, and where we want to go. Franz Joseph Haydn spent most of his life in a rural area on the Austria-Hungary border, making music for nobility but hoping for recognition as an important composer. He found this respect in England, a land that sincerely appreciated his music and which inspired twelve of his late symphonies, all successful. Tonight we bring you the final of the twelve, aptly named “London”. 

Anna Clyne, writing nearly 250 years after Haydn, is a composer from the United Kingdom who has worked as composer-in-residence in European capitals and now lives in New York. Her work brings forth the terroir of a moment and place in time in her This Midnight Hour

Finnish nationalist Jean Sibelius composed music that spoke to freedom, independence, and cultural preservation, unintentionally becoming widely regarded as his country’s greatest composer. His music is often credited with helping Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.