West Suburban Symphony opens ticket sales for 2018-19 season
Season tickets are now on sale for the West Suburban Symphony's October 2018 to June 2019 concert series in Hinsdale and Naperville.
"We're offering our audiences exciting music, both familiar and new, written from the Baroque era through today, by more than 20 composers," says Symphony president Richard Lukes. "And we're proudly celebrating the 72nd anniversary of our founding."
The orchestra opens its season Sunday, Oct. 21, at Hinsdale Central High School, with music rooted in fantasy, including Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain," accompanied by a display of artwork inspired by that piece and created by the school's students. The same concert includes John Williams' "Star Wars Suite" and Alexander Borodin's Symphony No. 2 (a tribute to medieval warriors), and Charles Gounod's eerie "Funeral March of a Marionette." Rounding out this afternoon of spirited music are Russell Brower's theme from the "World of Warcraft" video game and James Newton Howard's music from the 2016 film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."
The group's annual holiday concert for families on Sunday, Dec. 9, at Hinsdale Central will showcase selections from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet and a reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," accompanied by orchestra. Celebrate the season as they welcome Santa and perform Erich Wolfgang Korngold's "The Snowman," Leroy Anderson's popular "Christmas Festival," and all your favorite holiday carols.
On Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, the orchestra presents Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 at Union Church of Hinsdale, 137 S. Garfield Ave. Antonio Vivaldi's beloved Baroque music for string instruments and harpsichord, "The Four Seasons," will be performed with local high school violinists from the Western Springs School of Talent Education and the Naperville Suzuki School playing the lively solos.
Back at Hinsdale Central on Sunday, March 10, 2019, the group performs Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's 1927 musical "Show Boat" and George Gershwin's 1935 opera "Porgy and Bess" with chorus and Chicago vocal soloists Elizabeth Norman, Christopher Joyner and Robert Sims. The love stories of Gaylord and Magnolia on the Cotton Blossom and Porgy and Bess on Catfish Row will be told in enduring classic songs like "Ol' Man River," "Can't Help Loving' Dat Man," "Summertime," and "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'." This performance features the West Suburban Symphony Singers chorus and Chicago vocal soloists.
Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" and Georges Bizet's "L'Arlesienne" ("The Girl from Arles") anchor the orchestra's May 5, 2019, concert at Hinsdale Central, which also will feature a performance by the winner of the orchestra's annual solo competition for high school students. Arles, a town in Provence, was the setting of an 1872 play about unrequited love, and Bizet's background music has remained popular to this day. You'll also enjoy Leonard Bernstein's rollicking "Overture to Candide," Dmitri Shostakovich's whirlwind "Festive Overture."
On June 15, the orchestra, its chorus, and Chicago-area vocal soloists close the season with Giuseppe Verdi's "Requiem" at Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave. in Naperville. Intended for performance rather than worship, this music has been called "an opera in disguise." Verdi wrote his "Requiem" as a personal tribute to two countrymen he revered, composer Gioacchino Rossini and writer Alessandro Manzoni, and created an explosive masterpiece.
All Hinsdale concerts are on Sundays, starting at 3:30 p.m. Hinsdale Central High School is located at 55th and Grant streets.
The Saturday evening concert in Naperville starts at 7:30 p.m. June 15.
Season tickets are on sale through Saturday, Oct. 20, for $120 for all six concerts or $108 for seniors, 65 or older.
Individual concert tickets, also now on sale, are $25, $23 for seniors, $5 for teens, or free for children 12 or younger.
Quantity discounts are available for tickets purchased in advance. There is free parking is available for all concerts.
For more information, visit www.westsubsymphony.org, call (630) 887-7464, or write to West Suburban Symphony, P.O. Box 565, Hinsdale, IL 60522.