You can find them all in the 2021/22 Jacksonville Symphony season! After a season of triumphs and tribulations, the Jacksonville Symphony is planning a full return for the start of the 2021/22 season. If all goes as planned, September 2021 will mark the first time in well over a year that Jacoby Symphony Hall will be open without physical distancing.
The Florida Blue Classical Series will bring 11 weekends of performances, including the David M. Hicks Mozart Piano Series. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is indisputably one of the greatest composers ever to put pen to manuscript paper. From his first composition at the age of five to his final at 35, Mozart composed a total of 626 known works. In total, Mozart penned 27 piano concertos—the six he composed between 1785 and 1786 are arguably the most remarkable. The symphony will perform five of these six with an A-list of world-renowned pianists.
Honoring the music of the past provides the core foundation of what the Jacksonville Symphony does: giving a voice to composers who have not walked the Earth for centuries and introducing their stories and experiences to the audiences of today. But, as many arts organizations do, the Jacksonville Symphony believes in the importance of continuing to breathe new life into music through the commissioning of brand-new works. The 2021/22 season will be the start of a multiyear commissioning project that will see the premiere of five original works written by five of today’s most exciting composers. British and American composer Tarik O’Regan will kick off the project with a work to be premiered in June 2022.
Perhaps the most exciting project of the 2021/22 season is the return of opera to the Jacoby Symphony Hall stage. Two years ago, the symphony put on two sold-out performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This season, Music Director Courtney Lewis and the symphony welcome Metropolitan Opera Stage Director Gregory Keller for a star-studded production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème. A cast including singers from the Metropolitan Opera are joined by the Jacksonville Symphony Chorus and students from the University of North Florida’s Opera Ensemble and LaVilla School of the Arts to tell one of the most beautiful and beloved stories ever written.
After a season-long hiatus, the symphony’s popular Symphonic Night at the Movies Series will also return with performances of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The Fidelity National Financial Pops Series will include 10 concert weekends spanning a wide array of genres including the music of Broadway, Elton John, Judy Garland, and patriotic favorites. This year, Jacksonville’s own The Chris Thomas Band will not only join the symphony for a rousing New Year’s Eve after-party, but also for their own concert weekend with the orchestra!
“Whether you are coming to Jacoby Symphony Hall to hear the music of Beethoven or Broadway, we are all enjoying the same wonderfully accomplished orchestra and world-class guest artists,” says Lewis. “Each concert in the 2021/22 season will be filled with live, soul-stirring music for us to experience together. You will find transcendent performances, boundless energy, and unforgettable moments from one concert to another.”
Visit jaxsymphony.org for more information.
