At the Schermerhorn
The New Season has begun, do you have your seats?
With 14 GRAMMY Awards, and 27 nominations, to its credit, the Nashville Symphony is an artistic giant existing quite literally adjacent to the neon lights of Nashville’s Honky Tonk Highway. When constructing a season, Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero offers that he keeps three things in consideration throughout the process: the audience, the orchestra, and the ways in which the Nashville Symphony can contribute to the region culturally. The 2023-2024 season is sure to continue making considerable contributions.
George Gershwin’s classical-jazz concerto for orchestra, Rhapsody in Blue, will be presented in three different iterations throughout the season – on opening night with Béla Fleck’s recreation on banjo, an even jazzier interpretation led by Tony DeSare and trumpeter-conductor Bryon Stripling as a part of the “Great Gershwin!” Pops concert in January, and finally in April with Jean-Yves Thibaudet featured on piano to close the centennial celebration of this work. The Classical Series will also continue the tradition of live recordings, with this upcoming season being host to four such experiences while presenting compositions of John Corigliano, Chick Corea, and Antonio Estevez. Pairings of perennial favorites with works created by under-represented voices is a thoughtful and important approach to the 2023-2024 season’s development. Speaking to this Maestro Guerrero submits that, “Presenting [under-represented] voices in context with well-known repertoire refreshes the classics and helps us hear them in a new light.”
The FirstBank Pops Series continues to be led by Principal Pops Conductor, Enrico Lopez-Yañez. The Nashville Symphony is clearly making an investment and an artistic priority by not only naming a principal pops conductor, but by collaborating with Trisha Yearwood, Jefferson Starship, Patti LaBelle, Frankie Moreno singing the music of Elvis, Amos Lee, and Tituss Burgess all in a single season. Similar collaborations will occur during the holiday season with the Nashville Symphony sharing the stage with Joss Stone, Boyz II Men, and Dave Barnes.
Jazz aficionados can experience Esperanza Spalding, the Kenny Barron Trio, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and Marcus Miller throughout the season, too. Of the Jazz Series artists though, only Marcus Miller will appear alongside the Nashville Symphony. Four performances offered in The Ann & Monroe Carell Family Trust Family Series will engage young listeners, as should the Amazon Movie Series with the Nashville Symphony performing live soundtracks for Hocus Pocus, Home Alone, Encanto, Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.
Aside from the music, the Nashville Symphony shares that it continues to consider ways in which to address concerns about parking near the vicinity of Schermerhorn Symphony Center – an announcement outlining new parking options is expected to be shared first with season ticket holders in Summer 2023. Pre-concert conversations will provide opportunities for ticket holders to gain insights into each Classical Series performance conducted by Maestro Guerrero. These concert enhancements are free for ticket holders and begin one hour before the first downbeat of a performance is to be given. And, of course, there are numerous other subscriber benefits.
I charge citizens living in the greater Nashville region to prove themselves deserving of such a robust and varied artistic season. Whether purchasing tickets or participating in the various free education and community engagement programs, we must patron such cultural gemstones before they cease to exist.
For more information about the 2023-2024 season visit https://www.nashvillesymphony.org/tickets/season-tickets/series-packages/.
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Hawkins has facilitated performances on the podium as a conductor, in ensembles as a trumpet player, in lecture-based courses as an instructor, and administratively as a certified nonprofit professional.
