The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s 27th season, entitled “Adventures in Classical Music,” celebrates its status as the Delmarva Peninsula’s only professional symphony orchestra. This season will include six Masterworks Series programs, consisting of 17 full orchestra performances, conducted by Grammy-winning Music Director Michael Repper, who is beginning his third season with the orchestra. Additionally, there will be four Ensembles Series Concert programs, consisting of eight performances, played by quintets and quartets from the orchestra’s woodwind, brass, and string sections.
The season’s first concert cycle, “Violin Virtuoso,” will be performed on Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 7:30 PM at the Church of God in Easton; Saturday, September 28 at 3 PM at the Cape Henlopen High School in Lewes; and Sunday, September 29 at 3 PM at the Community Church in Ocean Pines.
Maestro Repper envisioned the September concert as one of “Tragedy to Triumph.” It begins with Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture and ends with Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, performed by Grace Park, winner of the Naumberg International Violin Competition. Repper lauds Park as “one of the best violinists anywhere” and describes the Mendelssohn concerto as having “one of the most triumphant endings of all violin concertos.” Park will perform on a rare 1717 Guarneri violin. Renowned for captivating her audience with her artistry, passion, and virtuosity, the violinist has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “fresh, different, and exhilarating” and by Strings Magazine as “intensely wrought and burnished.”
The concert will also feature the rarely heard Symphony in A Minor by Alice Mary Smith (1839-1884). Educated at the Royal Academy of Music, Smith was the first British woman to compose a symphony. At her death, The Atheneum described the Victorian composer and musician’s music as “marked by elegance and grace … power and energy.”
The 2024-2025 season will continue on October 20 and 26 with MSO Woodwind Quintet performances; November 8, 9, and 10 with the full orchestra performing “Fireworks of Fate” featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and No. 5 and Louise Farrenc’s Overtures No. 1 and No. 2.
The ever-popular “Holiday Joy” concerts are sure to excite and inspire the audience on December 5, 7, and 8, with the orchestra, featuring tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, who is an award winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Young Artists Program, performing holiday favorites. December concerts also include the perennial Holiday Brass Quintet ensemble on December 21 and 22, and the Toast to the New Year, New Year’s Eve concert with renowned soprano Kresley Figueroa, who is currently a member of the Kennedy Center’s Cafritz Young Artist Program.
The March 23 Elizabeth Loker International Concerto Competition at the Todd Performing Arts Center in Wye Mills will be a highlight of the season, featuring three young instrumental soloists performing, backed by the entire Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. Rare among global competitions, this past spring’s event attracted 155 instrumental solo musicians competing from 12 countries worldwide and 24 states.
The spring concerts continue with “Mozart’s Jupiter” featuring Mozart’s Symphonies No. 1, 40, and 41 on April 3, 5, and 6. Symphony No. 1 was written by Mozart as a child, and Symphony No. 41 was his final symphony, regarded as one of the most ingenious works of Western music ever written. It will be followed by “Romantic Triumph & Celebration” on May 8, 10, and 11, including brother and sister Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 (Italian) and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Overture, and Schumann’s Cello Concerto with Sphinx Competition-winning cellist Gabriel Martins. The MSO String Quartet will perform concerts on February 8 and 9. Concluding the season, the MSO’s Woodwind & Strings ensemble will perform on May 17 and 18, 2025.
Maestro Repper sums it all up with, “There’s something for everyone at the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, and we look forward to performing for you!”
A complete schedule of the 2024-2025 season’s Masterworks and Ensembles programs, venues, times, and other information is available at www.midatlanticsymphony.org
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THE MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is the only professional symphony orchestra serving southern Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore with a full season of programs. The MSO is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the Talbot County Arts Council; the Worcester County Arts Council; the Sussex County, Delaware Council; and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc.