Our Most Spectacular Season!
A Must-See, Must-Hear, Must-be-there Celebration
As we ring in our 75th Anniversary, we welcome you to join us as we usher in a new dawn for your Jacksonville Symphony.
Explore all of the must-see highlights of the 2024/25 Season.
Behind the Bows
Tenure Granted to Three Jacksonville Symphony Musicians
Under the Spotlight
Q&A With Concertmaster Adelya Nartadjieva
The Jacksonville Symphony is set to present two powerful performances this weekend at Jacoby Symphony Hall.
The program opens with Edward Elgar's In the South, a vibrant piece inspired by the Mediterranean's sunny climate and filled with lively themes. The program concludes with William Walton's First Symphony, known for its bold orchestral colors and innovative composition.
Highlighting the event, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending features the Symphony's dynamic concertmaster, Adelya Nartadjieva, delivering the solo parts. This piece is famous for its evocative soundscapes and musical expression from the soloist. In this special Q&A, Nartadjieva provides insights into her preparation for the performances and responds to some of your most popular questions.
Inside the Score
A Fantastical Season Finale: Symphonie Fantastique
Behind the Bows
Tenure Granted to Three Jacksonville Symphony Musicians
The Jacksonville Symphony has proudly awarded tenure to three distinguished musicians this season: Principal Violist Yun-Ting Kuo, Second Trumpeter Robert Gallagher and Third Hornist Thomas Park. This follows the 2023 tenure recognition of five of their colleagues, including Concertmaster Adelya Nartadjieva, Violinist Igor Khukhua, Violinist Jessica Hung, Associate Principal Cellist Benjamin Fryxell and Principal Trumpeter Kevin Karabell. Achieving tenure represents a significant professional milestone, reflecting a musician’s exceptional skill and dedication. The rigorous process starts from the initial audition and involves consistently high-level performances and peer evaluations.
Blake Schlabach, Vice President and General Manager of the Symphony, emphasized the prestige of the tenure title within the music industry, noting its recognition as a mark of extraordinary artistry and professionalism.
“The Jacksonville Symphony is proud to announce that three of our newest musicians have achieved tenure this season: Second Trumpeter Robert Gallagher, Principal Violist Yun-Ting Kuo and Third Hornist Thomas Park,” said Schlabach. “Their unparalleled artistry made it possible for our Music Director, Courtney Lewis, to grant them tenure this season. I am grateful for Lewis’ leadership in this area, along with the support they received from the musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony. We are excited that they are with us for the foreseeable future and look forward to their continued artistic contributions to the Jacksonville Symphony.”
Throughout the season, Lewis collaborates with the probation committee, assessing each tenure-track musician's contributions and developments. These discussions, involving feedback from peers and artistic leaders, play a crucial role in deciding tenure awards and guiding musicians on their path to this commendable achievement.
The newly tenured members have graciously accepted this honor and are committed to continuing their performances at Jacoby Symphony Hall for many upcoming seasons, contributing to the cultural richness and artistic excellence of the Jacksonville Symphony.
Under the Spotlight
Q&A With Concertmaster Adelya Nartadjieva
The Jacksonville Symphony is set to present two powerful performances this weekend at Jacoby Symphony Hall.
The program opens with Edward Elgar's In the South, a vibrant piece inspired by the Mediterranean's sunny climate and filled with lively themes. The program concludes with William Walton's First Symphony, known for its bold orchestral colors and innovative composition.
Highlighting the event, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending features the Symphony's dynamic concertmaster, Adelya Nartadjieva, delivering the solo parts. This piece is famous for its evocative soundscapes and musical expression from the soloist. In this special Q&A, Nartadjieva provides insights into her preparation for the performances and responds to some of your most popular questions.
What is it like to perform Vaughan Williams’ music?
“It’s interesting because growing up in Uzbekistan, I was never quite introduced to his music. I knew English music through the world of Elgar, and I love his Salut d'Amour and Cello Concerto. When I was asked to play The Lark Ascending, I was thrilled because it’s a great challenge to learn something new, explore the world of English music and have a chance to be the soloist.”
What do you like most about The Lark Ascending? What are its technical challenges?
“[The piece] is extremely beautiful and transcends you to a place of your choosing. I have this picture in my head where you wake up early in the morning when the sun is about to rise, and it’s dead quiet. But, when you step outside and listen very carefully, there are so many sounds in nature, and the birds are singing. When you listen just a little bit closer, you hear the wind and the leaves. The other picture I have in my head is when you go on a flight early in the morning, and you see the earth from a bird’s-eye view. You realize that life is so expansive, and you’re a part of it, and it’s just so beautiful. In The Lark Ascending, Vaughan Williams is asking the performer to play incredibly quiet, sincere and beautiful. We tend to think that fast and loud is the most difficult thing to do, but ask the professional to do the opposite, and it is really challenging. The way he writes music asks us to imagine as if we are improvising on the spot and convince the audience that this is what we are doing. He actually writes everything in the music, and it’s very clear, so my greatest challenge is to share that with the audience, the feeling of beauty, improvisation and peace that this work brings.
What is it like performing as a soloist with your colleagues in the Jacksonville Symphony?
“I am so excited. I had a performance with the Symphony in February [The Four Seasons], and we had a chamber orchestra. This time, we are going to have the full-size orchestra with Courtney Lewis conducting, so I’m excited to wear a different hat. There’s a special bond that we have when a soloist comes from the orchestra, and there is also a very special element when we get to know the audience, and the audience gets to know us. So, I’m really looking forward to sharing that experience.”
Inside the Score
A Fantastical Season Finale: Symphonie Fantastique
The Jacksonville Symphony, under the baton of Music Director Courtney Lewis, presents a thrilling season finale with two works that promise to leave audiences spellbound. The concerts will take place on June 7 and 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Jacoby Symphony Hall.
Opening the program is Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel Symphony. Since the 1990s, Adès has emerged as a prominent figure in music, often hailed as one of the foremost composers of his generation. He showcases his ability to blend complex musical ideas with dramatic storytelling. The Exterminating Angel Symphony is adapted from his own opera inspired by Luis Buñuel’s iconic 1962 surrealist film. The symphony captures the essence of the film’s narrative where guests at an opulent dinner party find themselves inexplicably unable to leave. The music mirrors this psychological and physical entrapment with a labyrinthine structure that uses complex rhythms and a unique orchestral palette to mirror the emotions of the party guests. Adès captures the unfolding drama with "Entrances," an expressionistic "March," followed by "Berceuse," which serves as a poignant love theme for a doomed couple among the guests. The finale, "Waltzes," expands upon fragments of waltz music heard throughout the opera, weaving them into a larger, more elaborate movement.
Following this modern masterpiece, the Symphony will perform Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, a staple of the romantic orchestral repertoire known for its deep emotional expressions and imaginative orchestration. This five-movement epic is famed not only for its vivid storytelling but also for its pioneering use of the orchestra to convey a complex, passionate tale of unrequited love.
The piece features a recurring principal theme—termed the idée fixe, or "fixed idea"—that represents the beloved across each of its movements. This expansion into a five-movement structure echoes Ludwig van Beethoven’s approach in his "Pastorale Symphony," which also incorporates extramusical themes. While Beethoven drew inspiration from the pastoral scenes of the countryside, Berlioz was influenced by Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater and his own unreciprocated affection for an Irish actress. In Symphonie fantastique, the idée fixe undergoes transformation within each movement, mirroring the protagonist's hallucinations. These hallucinations dramatically warp the idée fixe, particularly in the intense March to the Scaffold movement and the concluding Witches’ Sabbath, where Berlioz incorporates the medieval chant Dies irae. This integration of the chant set a precedent that would later inspire composers like Sergei Rachmaninoff to incorporate it into their own compositions.
Music Director Courtney Lewis remarked on the piece stating, “the artistic leap that Berlioz took in imagining the Symphonie fantastique is enormous. The sheer originality of the concept is staggering, as is the power, terror and beauty of the music. Throughout the symphony, Berlioz’s passion and vigor make the music fizz with life and excitement, resulting in a thrilling orchestral journey.”
The Jacksonville Symphony invites all music lovers to experience this powerful conclusion to a truly outstanding season. Tickets for the performances are available now, only at JaxSymphony.org.
