Jacksonville Symphony announces active 2018-2019 season

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The Jacksonville Symphony recently announced its 2018-2019 season, which will celebrate the Symphony’s 70th Anniversary. The announcement was made by Music Director Courtney Lewis and President & CEO Robert Massey.

“The 2018-2019 season is full of music that the Symphony has come to be about and will be one of our most electrifying yet,” Lewis said.

The Symphony will open the new season with the second annual Fanfare: An Opening Night Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 15, featuring three-time GRAMMY Award-winning Branford Marsalis. The saxophonist will perform John Williams’ “Escapades for Saxophone,” which was featured in the Oscar-nominated film “Catch Me If You Can.” The evening will be anchored with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, arguably his most popular symphony.

The Florida Blue Masterworks season will open with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 and close with Mahler’s powerful Fifth Symphony. Classical favorites such as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Verdi’s Requiem, Ravel’s Boléro and Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony will also be performed. The Symphony’s pre-concert talks, Insight, will return an hour before each Masterworks concert.

The Jacksonville Symphony will welcome faces new and old to the stage for guest appearances. The “extravagantly talented” organist Cameron Carpenter and Jennifer Koh make their Jacoby Symphony Hall debuts, and cellist Joshua Roman returns after making a splash in previous seasons. Back by popular demand from both symphony and audience, Karina Canellakis returns to the Jacoby Symphony Hall podium to conduct a concert of Beethoven, Bartók and Mozart.

The Fidelity National Financial Pops Series will kick off with The Music of John Williams, bringing cinematic favorites to life with the Jacksonville Symphony. The popular Cirque Musica makes a return with their incredible acrobats and aerialists. Not to be forgotten is one of Jacksonville’s favorite holiday traditions, Holiday Pops.

The first Regency Centers Symphony in 60 series concert of the season will take place on Sept.  27 with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. Symphony in 60 is a series designed for those looking for something to do after work. With three concerts presented on Thursday nights, Symphony in 60 starts at 5:30 p.m. with a happy hour at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. After a one-hour concert, the musicians and conductor join the audience for an on-stage after-party in Jacoby Symphony Hall.

For the first time, the Symphony will present a multi-week, Midwinter Mozart Festival in January. The festival includes a performance of Mozart’s greatest opera scenes at UNF’s Lazzara Hall and a concert that explores the more intimate side of Mozart through his incredible chamber music. At the midway point in the festival, the Symphony will present a showing of the dramatic, Academy Award-winning film “Amadeus,” live with the orchestra. The film tells the story of Mozart’s contemporary, Antonio Salieri, and his envy of the young master’s genius. There will also be fully staged performances of Mozart’s gripping opera Don Giovanni.

The 2018-2019 season will feature six Symphonic Night at the Movies concerts next season. Included in this expanded series are “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” the iconic original “Star Wars” and a special showing of the Hitchcock classic “Psycho” on the eve of Halloween.

“We are incredibly excited to share the 2018-2019 season with Jacksonville,” Massey said. “We have brought back crowd favorites while adding new and exciting performances curated for our audience.”

For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit www.JaxSymphony.org or call the ticket office at (904) 354-5547.