If the upcoming season from the Fort Smith Symphony were a meal, it would not be meat and potatoes. It would be something more gourmet, with a mix of influence from other countries, says the organization’s musical director and maestro, John Jeter.
Just as globalization and availability has infiltrated the food world — in a stunning, new, tasty ways — the symphony is showing the breadth of its capabilities in the 2015-16 season, which was announced earlier this month.
Fort Smith Symphony 2015-16 Season - “Contrasts”
Oct. 3 — “The Greatest Generation”
Oct. 24 — Around the World with Disney
Dec. 5 — Holiday Memories
Jan. 23 — “Jupiter and Beyond”
April 16 — “The Gospel According to Swing”
May 14 — “Peak of Perfection”
All shows take place in the ArcBest Corporation Performing Arts Center in Fort Smith.
Season tickets are on sale now and range from $90-$115 for students and $140-$185 for adults. Single concert tickets will become available Sept. 8. Call 452-1001 or visit fortsmithsymphony.o… for tickets or details.
“We can switch, instantly, from one thing to something completely different,” says Jeter, who is entering his 19th year at the helm of the orchestra. “It’s a showcase, a celebration, of contrasting art forms.”
Hence the name for the upcoming season, “Contrasts.” The six-show season kicks off in October and runs through the following May. In many ways, the recently announced season is a response to last year’s look at popular, classic material. The new season, to use the word again, is a contrast.
“There are many artistic right turns,” Jeter says. “I think people will be really intrigued.”
The first offering presents one of four world premiere pieces offered by the organization in the next 12 months. This particular piece, “Resilience,” written by Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer Michael Schelle, comes in honor of the 70th anniversary of the end of the second World War. It includes a passage inspired by a motif found at the Dachau concentration camp. It debuts as part of a program titled “The Greatest Generation,” which looks at the war and also includes Copland’s Symphony No. 3, completed in 1945. Jeter calls it “the great American symphony.”
The next program contrasts with the solemn nature of the one it precedes. The Oct. 24 concert, called “Around the World with Disney” takes the orchestral works right out of Disney classics and brings them to the stage. Offerings will include selections from “Fantasia” as well as those from “Tarzan,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Mary Poppins.” The Disney Corporation is also supplying still images from those movies to accompany the sounds on stage.
The third event shifts back to traditionalism with a take on several popular holiday classics. The “Holiday Memories” concert on Dec. 5 will feature music from Handel’s “Messiah” and “The Nutcracker,” among other selections.
The first show of next year provides internal contrasts. Sandwiched between two popular classic works — the overture to Beethoven’s The Creatures of Prometheus and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41, popularly called “Jupiter — is a rarely heard oboe concerto. Teresa Delaplain is the featured guest for Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra from 1955. As for “Jupiter,” Jeter is excited to hear it again. He rarely schedules repeat performances, but the work seemed ripe for another attempt. The orchestra performed it once before in a temporary venue while the organization’s longtime home, the ArcBest Performing Arts Center, went through reconstruction. And with the better, bolder symphony he believe the group has become, he’s excited about the second try.
“Now it’s going to be really terrific,” he says.
Speaking of repeats, jazz trumpeter and vocalist Byron Stripling returns to join the Fort Smith Symphony, although this time for a very different program. The April 16 event “The Gospel According to Swing” showcases favorites from both of those genres. In addition to gospel standards such as “Amazing Grace” and “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” the orchestra will also present Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 that evening.
The sixth and final public offering of the season takes place May 14. Three distinct composers will be featured during the event: Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Brice Johnson, whose “Primal Silhouettes” will debut that night.
Early tickets sales from renewing season ticket holders are tracking ahead of last year’s totals, Jeter says. Approximately 85-90 percent of available tickets are sold as part of season packages. The remaining 200 or so seats typically sell out weeks ahead of the shows. Single session tickets go on sale Sept. 8.
KEVIN KINDER