Single tickets for the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra’s 2019-20 season are now on sale to the public. Tickets can be purchased online at gardearts.org, by calling the Garde Arts Center Box Office at 860-444-7373 x 1, calling the Symphony office at 860-443-2876, or in person at the Eastern Connecticut Symphony office at 289 State Street, New London, CT. Subscription packages, which offer ticket exchange, savings, and other benefits are still available. Single tickets on sale for the ECSO’s 2019-20 season
The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra kicks off the 2019-20 season on Saturday, October 26, at 7:30 PM with “New Season – New World”, at the Garde Arts Center in New London. This opening concert features violinist, Solomiya Ivakhiv making her ECSO debut with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The concert concludes with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World).
2019-20 Season general copy:
We are thrilled to announce our 73rd season’s lineup, curated by Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada. This season marks the 10th anniversary of Music Director and Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada’s tenure at the ECSO. Major repertoire selections from Dvořák, Copland, Gershwin, Beethoven, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and many more will bring a thrilling range of sounds to the Garde stage. In addition to these timeless composers, we will be bringing in two world-renowned Turkish artists for a unique program highlighting Turkish culture and one of Mozart’s masterpieces. Grammy Award-winning guitarist, Jason Vieaux, will join us for Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus takes the stage twice for famed New London composer Charles Frink’s John Henry and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast. We are also partnering with another local treasure, the New London Big Band, for a program highlighting American composers.
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. Patrons can also take advantage of the Pick 4 subscription, which enables people to schedule our concerts around their busy lives.
Solomiya Ivakhiv, Violin
The ECSO opens its 73rd season with a show-stopper program sure to excite the audience. Grammy Award-winning composer, Kenneth Fuchs’ (University of Connecticut faculty) exciting overture, Discover the Wild, opens the concert evoking images of America’s wild west. The evening’s soloist, international touring violinist and University of Connecticut faculty member Solomiya Ivakhiv, makes her ECSO debut performing what is arguably the most popular violin concerto of all time, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Following intermission, the orchestra returns in full force to celebrate Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada’s 10th anniversary by performing the symphony that he programmed on his audition concert 10 years ago – Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 (From the New World). Dvořák wrote his iconic symphony in America drawing from spiritual and Americana themes to create one of the most satisfying melodic journeys in the orchestral canon.
Sponsor: Friends of the Symphony
Saturday, November 23, 2019, 7:30pm
Hannah Cho, 2019 Instrumental Competition winner; Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus
Sponsor: ASA Environmental Products, Inc. & Firefly Farms, LLC.
Saturday, February 1, 2020, 7:30pm
New London Big Band, Sean Nelson, Trombone & Band Leader
Kelli O’Connor, Clarinet
Sponsor: Dominion Energy
Saturday, February 29, 2019; 7:30pm
Çağatay Akyol, Harp; Bülent Evcil, Flute
Sponsor: Chelsea Groton Bank
Jason Vieaux, Guitar
The 19-20 season continues with an exciting program that features a Grammy Award winner and timeless compositions. Edward Elgar’s concert overture In the South opens the program with a boisterous theme re-purposed from another work, that joyfully expresses his experiences with his family in Italy. The soloist for the evening is Grammy Award-winning guitarist Jason Vieaux. Vieaux performs Joaquín Rodrigo’s well known Concierto de Aranjuez. Rodrigo was blinded at a very young age, but this challenge did not hinder him from composing his gold standard guitar concerto, inspired by the sounds and fragrances of the Royal Gardens of Aranjuez, Spain. Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 finishes out the evening. Written not long after his first symphony, at the inspiring backdrop of a vacation in Pörtschach, Austria, Brahms let the environment influence his cheery symphony which will sweep the audience away with its jubilance.
Sponsor: Lawrence + Memorial Hospital / Yale New Haven Health
Saturday, April 25, 2020, 7:30pm
Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus
Mystic River Chorale
Gregory Flower, Baritone
Vyacheslav Gryaznov, Piano
Sponsor: Olde Mistick Village & Charter Oak Federal Credit Union
New Season - New World
Saturday, October 26, 2019, 7:30pmDeath & Transfiguration
The ECSO continues its 73rd season with an array of pieces that showcase the wide scope of the orchestral repertoire. Opening the concert in bombastic fashion is an arrangement of the iconic rock band Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, a prog-rock operetta and one of their most popular songs. The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus joins to open the concert with this piece. Composer Charles Frink, an original member of the ECSO, and good friend of founding Music Director, Victor Norman, grew to become a well-known New London composer and educator. His piece entitled John Henry, after the American folk figure, features the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Chorus. Originally premiered by Victor Norman and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus (ECSC), the ECSO and ECSC revisits this piece under the baton of its current Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada. Composer Richard Strauss’s tone poem Death and Transfiguration, based on the poem by Alexander Ritter, depicts the process of death, and coming to terms with life’s accomplishments. The work’s final theme is an uplifting and jubilant celebration of transition. The concert closes with Johannes Brahms’ lush and exciting Violin Concerto performed by 2019 ECSO Instrumental Competition winner, Hannah Cho. Brahms wrote this piece in consultation with his friend, violinist Joseph Joachim. It is regarded as one of the most epic works of the violin repertoire for both performers and listeners.All-American Artistry
The 2020 portion of our 19-20 season kicks off with a non-traditional pairing: the New London Big Band on the stage for the first time with the ECSO. Continuing the celebration of Music Director & Conductor Toshiyuki Shimada’s 10th anniversary, this concert presents a slate of national and local treasures. In recognition of Black History Month, the ECSO performs Concert Overture No. 2 by composer Florence Price. Price was the first African-American woman to have a composition performed by a major symphony orchestra. Principal Clarinetist, Kelli O’Connor, returns to the front of the stage to perform Artie Shaw’s spirited Clarinet Concerto. A medley of big band hits closes out the first half with classics such as In the Mood, Begin the Beguine, Moonlight Serenade, and more, all arranged by Lee Norris. The New London Big Band, led by Sean Nelson, is featured prominently on the 2nd half as they join forces with the ECSO for originals and works by big band composers. Music of the legendary jazz composer and orchestra leader, Duke Ellington, will thrill the audience along with works by George Gershwin, Tommy Dorsey, and more.Turkish Delight
Leap into your seat for this Leap Day concert featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, and pieces and performers from Turkey. Throughout his career, Music Director and Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada has visited Turkey to conduct many of the country’s leading orchestras. These collaborations have connected Toshi with some of the country’s phenomenally gifted artists. The evening opens with the orchestra performing Esintiler (Inspirations) a work by one of Turkey’s most beloved composers Ferit Tüzün. Soloists for the evening are Çağatay Akyol, harpist, and Bülent Evcil, flutist. The duo performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concerto for Harp and Flute. This is Mozart’s only concerto for harp, and the pairing of flute and harp was seen as an unusual combination at the time. Following intermission, Toshi and the orchestra perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, one of the composer’s most popular works. Music from this symphony has been used in many television shows and movies such as Mr. Holland’s Opus, The King’s Speech, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Cosmos. In Beethoven’s time, the 2nd movement was so well liked by the audience that it was encored at the work’s debut in 1813.Spring Strings
Saturday, March 28, 2020, 7:30pmFeast & Fireworks
For the closing concert of our 19-20 season, you don’t have to travel to London to experience the splendor and spectacle that is the BBC Proms. The evening’s festivities kick-off with a piece befitting the conclusion of Music Director and Conductor, Toshiyuki Shimada’s 10th season with the ECSO – George Frideric Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks. Russian pianist, Vyacheslav Gryaznov, makes his ECSO debut performing the challenging and technical Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Once considered unplayable, the concerto brings rapturous piano passages and sublime orchestrations to the Garde stage. To close out the season and evening, we saved the best for last! The Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Chorus join forces with the Mystic River Chorale and baritone Gregory Flower to present British composer Sir William Walton’s epic cantata Belshazzar’s Feast. This piece, commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation, was originally conceived for a small ensemble, but grew in length and scope. Multiple brass bands, double choruses, soloist, and orchestra all unite to present the story of King Belshazzar.