THE FIREWORKS AREN’T OVER – THEY’VE JUST BEGUN!
THE GREATER BRIDGEPORT SYMPHONY OPENS ITS ALL-AMERICAN SEASON ON OCTOBER 3
Celebrating 250 years of American freedom in music, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony (GBS) will open its 81st Season on October 3. In its five concerts during its upcoming season, styled AMERICA: PORTRAITS IN SOUND, Maestro Eduardo Leandro will conduct the music of American giants. The sounds of Bernstein, Gershwin, Copland, Still, Barber and Adams, along with Scott Joplin, Richard Rodgers (Broadway!) Vince Guaraldi (Charlie Brown!) and Robin Hood (Hollywood, 1937!) will fill the Klein and Mertens Theaters between October 3, 2026 and April 17, 2027.
“We only get to do this every fifty years,” says GBS President Mark Halstead, “so we decided to pull out all the stops and celebrate the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness as exemplified by music that could only have been born in the Land of the Free.”
Three of the five season concerts (October 3, December 19 and April 17) will be performed at The Klein Memorial Auditorium (theklein.org), and two concerts (November 7 and March 6) will happen at Mertens Theater at the University of Bridgeport. “The different venues give us the chance to perform different types of music,” says conductor Leandro. “Everybody in Bridgeport knows The Klein for its big Art Deco hall, and we also love Mertens for a more intimate musical experience. We’ll have chamber ensembles playing there, with the audience gathered around.”
“20th Century American Masters” on October 3 will showcase Bernstein’s Candide Overture, Barber’s Violin Concerto (with Grammy Award-winning violinist Jennifer Koh), and Gershwin’s iconic An American in Paris, followed by William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony. “I Hear America Singing” on November 7 at Mertens partners the Wilton Singers with GBS in a program of choral music including Henry Molicone’s Beatitudes Mass, Shenandoah and Irving Berlin’s Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor. December 19 at The Klein gives the “American Holiday” audience an America@250 gift: the Connecticut premiere of Rhapsody in Red White and Blue, composed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Jeffrey Biegel on piano; he’ll follow up with A Charlie Brown Christmas and the 55-piece orchestra will perform excerpts from The Nutcracker Suite and lots of holiday cheer. Then on March 6 at Mertens, it’s “Bridgeport Brass”: a 25-member chamber orchestra playing great brass pieces (including Fanfare for the Common Man) and a symphony by John Adams (the composer, not the president). The season will close with “Postcards from Abroad” on April 17 at The Klein: music written by European composers inspired by America, such as Shostakovich (Jazz Suite), Korngold (suite from the 1937 classic movie Robin Hood) and Dvorak (From the New World).
Subscriptions are on sale now at GBS.org, ranging from $95 to $295 for all five concerts. Get personal service by calling GBS at (203)576-0263. Single tickets for all concerts are available from $21 to $72, but all kids under 19 are FREE, with accompanying adults getting 15% off their tickets.
250-for-250: in the spirit of America’s 250th anniversary, GBS is asking 250 of its friends to step up and donate $250 above and beyond their normal donation amounts to help defray the extra costs incurred for rental of American music, which is generally newer and not in the public domain.