Mid Texas Symphony Season No. 39
Seguin/New Braunfels – Music is language; expressing, exposing, and communicating our emotions. It is gathered, shared, written, spoken, performed, and shaped into an aural encounter that is both an idea and a physical experience. Mid-Texas Symphony’s Season No. 39 is a 7- concert aural excursion into the exploration of the music in our lives; Music is Life. MTS is Music.
When asked what music “is “Mid-Texas Symphony’s Maestro, David Mairs, says, “Music is food for the human soul. And even though they don’t know it, everyone loves symphonic music. They really do,” he explains with an enthusiastic nod of his head. “Honestly, I believe this to be true. They just haven’t met the piece of music that does it for them. It’s out here,” he says with twinkle in his blue eyes, “you know, the music that makes you go, ‘Ah, I do like this!’”
Ray Fisher, lead bass and 33-year veteran with Mid-Texas Symphony says, “When Dave programs a season he wants everyone to love it. He makes sure the musicians feel challenged by either programming a difficult piece many of them have always wanted to do, or a piece that he knows our local artists will perform seamlessly.” Music is perfection.
It is impossible to capture the essence of live music except with one’s heart, and that’s one of the many reasons symphonic music is best heard live. When Maestro Mairs creates a season he wants the music to be loved by the musicians and to be inspiring and accessible to the audience and to the entire MTS Family. Music is familiar.
Concert No. 1 opens with an original piece composed by Maestro Mairs Lacrimosa et Benedictus (for the Victims). Originally composed by Mairs in the days following the tragic events of 9/11. Both a lament for the fallen and a prayer for the living this powerful piece opens Season No. 39. Music is healing.
Also scheduled for Concert No. 1 is Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 from the New World. “Music is water for the parched spirit,” Mairs says. “To be enveloped into a cocoon of powerful rhythms, undulating sounds, and melodic runs is to experience the power of the music in a deeply personal way. You can only do that best when you sit in a music hall, surrounded by like-minded others, and feel what the music has to offer – that’s when you become fully immersed.” Music is powerful.
Concert No. 2 in New Braunfels at the Performing Arts Center at Canyon High School on October 16, 2016 is all about the cellos and features Ginastera’s Ballet Suite, The Bartered Bride: Overture by Smetana, and Cello Concerto by Dvorak. Guest artist Christine Lamprea, cello, is the featured performer for the much loved Dvorak piece. She has been hailed as a “firebrand,” Lamprea’s playing will move the audience to other dimensions. Music is passion.
Concert No. 3 on December 11th at Jackson Auditorium features the Mid-Texas Community Chorus under the direction of Chorus master David Gailey performing Vivaldi’s Gloria. MTS performs Bizet’s Faradole from L’Arlesienne Suite, Mairs’ Carols from Near and Far, as well as the New Braunfels Children’s Chorus performing annual children’s favorites with the orchestra. Music is tradition.
Concert No. 4 brings back sounds from the music of the 1930s and 1940s. Big Band Blowout takes place in New Braunfels at the Civic and Convention Center on February 18, 2017. The first weekend after Valentine’s Day – this is Date Night, Doll! Swing dance lessons before the show, dinner, dancing, vocal performances, and the Mid-Texas Symphony orchestra playing Big Band tunes like Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Les Brown, Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey, Music is mad, man!
Concert No. 5 on March 26, 2017 is an auditory delight with an afternoon of classical works of Vivaldi, Mozart and Haydn. Concerto for Violin No 5 by Mozart features our own MTS assistant Concert Master, Laura Scalzo, as solo violin.
Concert No. 6 on Saturday, April 29, 2017 at the Brauntex Theatre downtown New Braunfels is a fusion of brass, percussion, Americana music and the symphonic sounds of Mid-Texas Symphony’s professional orchestra. Singer/songwriter and New Braunfels’ native, Stewart Mann of the Americana group The Statesboro Revue, performs his songs with the orchestra, and his brother, Garrett. Americana Goes Classic is today’s sound. Music is fusion.
Long-time local music supporter and music critic from New Braunfels’ Brauntex Theater, Dale Martin, says “it is exciting to see Mid-Texas Symphony partner with an Americana artist. The story-telling aspect of Americana music is perfectly suited to the epic presence of orchestral music. This concert is about now.” Music is change
Concert No. 7 on May 7, 2017 finds the final concert back at Jackson Auditorium. It brings the works of Rossini, Verdi, Wagner and Strauss to the stage featuring the symphonic works from major operas such as La Traviata, Tristan und Isolde, and Der Rosenkavalier Suite. Also featured will be the winner of the 2016 MTS Young Artist Competition in voice. The annual competition brings talented college-aged students from across the country to the forefront.
Mid-Texas Symphony is music. Music is the celebration of the classics, it is the recognition of duty, it is the homage to the spirit of community, it is the acknowledgement of pain, and beauty and love, and it is the creation of something new and a reinventing of the old. Mid-Texas Symphony invites you to join us during our 7-concert aural exploration of the meaning of music during Season No. 39.
Season No. 39 is on sale now. Tickets range from $15 to $35 for classical concerts. The Big Band Blowout at the NB Civic Center and Americana Goes Classic concerts are new additions to the Season No. 39 classical series and are priced separately. Purchase tickets on line at www.mtsymphony.org Mid-Texas Symphony is supported in part by The Texas Commission on the Arts, The City of New Braunfels, The McKenna Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The City of Seguin, and Texas Lutheran University.
Call the Box Office at 830.463.5353 or come by our downtown office, 100 S. Austin Street, Seguin, Texas 78155.
About the Mid-Texas Symphony:
Founded in 1978 by professor, Anita Windecker, with the support from Texas Lutheran University, and the communities of Seguin and New Braunfels, the Mid-Texas Symphony has provided the South Central Texas region with professional symphonic music for over 39 years. The Mid-Texas Symphony’s educational programs reach more than 3600 children annually. It is a major contributor to the cultural vibrancy of our cities and draws visitors from all 50 States, Canada and countries from around the World. Mid-Texas Symphony is our area’s ONLY professional orchestra and provides the unique opportunity to experience world-class symphonic music in our home towns. For more information contact: C.J. Washington, 830.463.5353 or mts@tlu.edu
