Penfield Symphony Orchestra's "A New Beginning" Concert

The Penfield Symphony Orchestra, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to enriching the Rochester community for more than 60 years, will present a concert “A New Beginning,” the first concert of the PSO’s 69th season. It will be led by the PSO’s newly appointed Music Director, Dr. Jared Chase, who guest-conducted the orchestra’s May 2024 concert.

The concert opens with Shostakovich’s sparkling Festive Overture with its brilliant fanfares and driving themes. Then follows The Alcotts, a movement from Ives’s A Concord Symphony. This musical sketch depicts Concord, MA, residents the Alcotts, and evokes Louisa May and her family.

Baritone Holden Turner will then perform traditional spiritual songs as a precursor to Florence Price’s Concert Overture No. 1, a 1937 composition that features the traditional "Sinner, Please Don't Let This Harvest Pass" as its theme.    

The concert concludes with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” a perennial crowd-pleaser, composed in 1892, soon after Dvořák had been appointed Music Director of New York’s National Conservatory of Music of America. With this intentional attempt to bring an American musical sensibility to European-style classical music, he stated that, in this composition, he was influenced and inspired by Native American music and Black spirituals.

This concert, which represents the start of a new phase of the orchestra’s long existence, has received special support from a Monroe County Midsized Arts Grant, and will be held on October 21, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. at the Penfield High School Auditorium, located at 25 High School Drive in Penfield, New York.   Tickets can be purchased online at www.penfieldsymphony.org, by phone at 585-872-0774, and at the door on the night of the concert.  Tickets cost $15 for adults. For students of any age with a student ID, $1.  Group rates are available for parties of six or more.

The Penfield Symphony Orchestra is a 90-piece orchestra whose goal is to enrich the Rochester community by providing fine music in a setting where both amateur and professional musicians can perform a variety of classical repertoire. For information on concerts and highlights, follow the Penfield Symphony Orchestra on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PenfieldSymphonyOrchestra, or visit the website at http://www.penfieldsymphony.org.

Founded in 1955, the Penfield Symphony Orchestra (PSO) offers four classical music concerts per season to audiences of all ages. Amateur and professional musicians in the 90-piece orchestra enrich the Rochester community by providing fine classical, modern, and pops music. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, the orchestra also sponsors an annual competition where young musicians audition to win recognition and an opportunity to solo with a symphony orchestra. Over its history, the PSO has commissioned many new works, and concerts have featured guest artists of local and national renown. The PSO Board of Directors and musicians are dedicated volunteers who are passionate about promoting arts and music and who, quite simply, like to make and perform great music together.