Press Release – ECSO Announces 75th Anniversary Season
Friday, October 1, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: CALEB BAILEY, 860-443-2876, [email protected]
Click here for downloadable .pdf version
Check out our full 75th Anniversary Season Brochure
Single tickets and subscriptions on sale
for the ECSO’s 2021-22 75th Anniversary Season
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra announces its 75th anniversary season since its founding in 1946 by Emeritus Music Director, Victor Norman. Join us for this landmark, celebratory season as the ECSO returns to the Garde Arts Center stage in New London on six Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.: October 23, November 20, January 22, February 19, March 19, and May 7.
Subscriptions and single tickets are currently on sale. Single tickets to events can be purchased by visiting the Garde Arts Center website at gardearts.org or by calling the Garde Arts Center Box Office at 860-444-7373 x 1 or the ECSO office at 860-443-2876. Subscription packages provide a significant discount versus purchasing individual tickets and are available by calling the ECSO office.
Attendees will enjoy a season of symphonic masterpieces by Haydn, Beethoven, and Sibelius; thrilling works by Russian composers Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; rediscovered treasures by Black composers Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, and George Walker; and stimulating new pieces by contemporary composers—all memorably interpreted by Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada and the full contingent of talented ECSO musicians.
ECSO Principal Trumpet Thomas Brown will be the featured soloist on October 23, playing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto. Guest artists later in the season will include violinist Igor Pikayzen, saxophonist Joshua Thomas, and guitarist Jason Vieaux, who will perform Joaquín Rodrigo’s evocative Concierto de Aranjuez.
Opening night: Beethoven’s 5th
October 23, 7:30pm, Garde Arts Center, New London, CT
To kick off the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season and celebrate the return to the Garde Arts Center, Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada leads the full orchestra in a performance of Polina Nazaykinskaya’s moving symphonic poem Fenix. This world premiere of Nazaykinskaya’s revised version references the mythological bird said to rise from its own ashes and signals the evening’s theme of endurance and rebirth. The concert’s first half then goes out with a flourish: Franz Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, featuring U.S. Coast Guard Band member and ECSO Principal Trumpeter Thomas Brown. Following intermission, the orchestra pays tribute to Beethoven, whose 250th anniversary celebration in 2020 was postponed worldwide, with Symphony No. 5. This extraordinarily powerful work is built around the most famous four-note phrase in Western classical music.
Single tickets can be purchased by visiting the Garde Arts Center website at gardearts.org or by calling the Garde Arts Center Box Office at 860-444-7373 x 1 or the ECSO office at 860-443-2876.
COVID-19 protocols:
In order to safely celebrate our 75th anniversary season, we are implementing new concert attendance guidelines. All audience members will need to provide proof of a full course of vaccination for COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours from the start of the concert. Items you should bring for admission to the hall includes a photo ID, photo or copy of your vaccination card, OR a photo, text, or email of a negative test result, where applicable. Masks will be required indoors at all times unless actively eating or drinking. Anyone unable or unwilling to comply with these guidelines may be asked to leave the concert, however refunds will be available in such cases.
Additionally, there will be no pre-concert chats in the hall or post-concert receptions in the upper lobby as there have been in the past until it is deemed safe to resume these once more. These guidelines are subject to change as the circumstances require and if government and venue recommendations evolve.
ECSO general copy:
We are thrilled to announce our 75th Anniversary Season’s lineup, curated by Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada. This season marks the 12th year under the musical leadership of Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada.
Visit www.ectsymphony.com for more information and follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) @ectsymphony
The ECSO offers a range of affordable seating options from $65 to as low as $12 for attendance to one concert. The ECSO will continue to offer those under 40 years of age and active or retired military members $12 tickets in premium sections.
Founded in 1946, the mission of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra is to inspire, educate, and connect our communities through live orchestral music.