Season's Greetings
Austin Symphony Orchestra's 115th season adds interactive elements
Austin Symphony Orchestra conductor Peter Bay addresses the audience.
The Austin Symphony Orchestra (ASO) enters its 115th year of delighting audiences Friday, September 12. The upcoming season presents interesting twists on the classics, new modes of interactivity, and some accessible fun for pop culture-loving audiences.
Already, one of the most-discussed performances of the season is the opener, Kauyumari, by Gabriela Ortiz. Renowned violinist Stefan Jackiw will perform the orchestral work, which references a sacred guide of the Wixárika (Huichol) people of Mexico, using a violin from the 1730s on loan from a nonprofit. The work will be followed by Camille Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, which uses the enormous instrument in lieu of an orchestra, plus Sergei Prokofiev’s vibrant Violin Concerto No. 2, making for a big bang of an opener.
The Masterworks concerts, represented this year by the opener and traditional ASO seasonal offerings such as George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, are always sellouts that receive high marks from concertgoers.
But the pops concerts are always big crowd-pleasers, too. This year, they include Return of the Jedi in Concert, the musical culmination of the original Star Wars trilogy; plus, ASO productions of Home Alone and Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.
“Pirates of the Caribbean, especially, is always in our Top 5” explains ASO director of marketing Jason Nicholson, who is a 25-year veteran of the organization. “We’ll also have a special guest for this event — our very own Captain Jack Sparrow.”
The pops concerts will feature another set of special guests from the 501st Legion, the army of Star Wars fans and cosplayers who lend their stormtrooper uniforms to charitable causes the world over. Their presence at Return of the Jedi in Concert should lend a considerable gravitas to the Imperial March.
A couple of the shows, which straddle both classical and popular music, are offering a new twist on the old concept of a concert, playing with audience interactivity in new ways.
Before select concerts, audience members will be able to download the Meta VR app Maestro, a virtual reality game centered around conducting an orchestra, and actually Maestro-along with the ASO.
In another case, it’s not the audience that’s interacting with the piece, but a “ghost” of the author himself: In the performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, an antique player piano has been synced up to an old performance of the piece by the author, allowing the larger orchestra to play along with Gershwin’s living memory. Every keystroke is an echo from his past carrying forward into our present.
The ASO also welcomed Sonya Robinson as its new vice president of development August 25.
According to a press release, Robinson, a native Texan, has more than two decades of experience in fundraising leadership — not just in the arts, but also higher education and nonprofit sectors. Her development career started with the Jewish Community Association of Austin, and her most recent role was at Southwestern University in Georgetown.
“I am thrilled to join the Austin Symphony Orchestra at this exciting moment in its history,” she said in the release. “Music has the power to unite and inspire, and I look forward to working alongside the Symphony team to connect more people to the transformative experience of live symphonic music.”
Before buying tickets, there are a few things to know.
“I would purchase any tickets from the ASO website directly, and not use a third party site,” Nicholson advises. “We’ve actually had some scams in the past where people have gotten burned”
With both quality and quantity coming this season, Nicholson has some advice on how to pick out a show as well.
“I would tell people to look at our calendar, find something you don’t recognize, and go to that.”
