Opening Night Extravaganza


Saturday, October 26, 2024
7:30 PM
Garde Arts Center, New London

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The opening program of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-25 season, its 15th under Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada, spans two centuries and two continents. After standing for The Star-Spangled Banner—as arranged by none other than Igor Stravinsky—the audience will thrill to the theme from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (and, more recently, Barbie) from German composer Richard Strauss’s 1896 tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra.

A trip to the Midwest of the 1930s follows: two movements from the orchestral suite based on Aaron Copland’s 1954 opera The Tender Land. The first half wraps up with more from Strauss: the suite from his 1910 comic opera Der Rosenkavalier. Following intermission, London-trained organist Simon Holt, a 25-year resident of southeastern Connecticut and Director of Salt Marsh Opera (among many other organizations), will be the soloist for a performance of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns’s sparkling Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, known as the “Organ Symphony,” dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, who died two months after its 1886 premiere.

Check out our 2024-25 season program book for more information on each concert, piece, and soloist:

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You can subscribe today to lock in discounts (up to 40% versus buying single tickets!), complimentary vouchers, and the same seats for each concert. The order form is available here, or you can call the ECSO office at 860-443-2876 to discuss seating options.

The Program

Stravinsky

The Star-Spangled Banner

R. Strauss

Introduction of Also Sprach Zarathustra

Copland

The Tender Land: Introduction and Love Music, the Promise of Living

R. Strauss

Der Rosenkavalier Suite

Saint-Saëns

Symphony No. 3 in C minor (Organ)

feat. Simon Holt, organ

Explore the rest of the 2024-25 Season

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