St Albans Symphony Orchestra marks its 90th anniversary with a special concert in St Saviour’s Church on Saturday, July 2.
The 'American Classics’ concert is dedicated to the memory of the orchestra's principal conductor, Tom Hammond, who died suddenly in December 2021.
SASO will play Gustav Holst’s The Perfect Fool ballet music. The Perfect Fool is a one-act opera, a parody of more serious operatic works by Verdi, Wagner and Debussy.
The orchestra will welcome back violinist David Le Page to perform American composer Samuel Barber’s dazzling Violin Concerto.
The programme also includes Jean Sibelius’ The Swan of Tuonela. Sibelius was one of Tom’s favourite composers.
SASO anticipate America's Independence Day with one of classical music’s best loved works, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No.9 'From the New World'.
As the St Albans Orchestral Society, SASO performed the Dvořák symphony at its first concert in 1932.
The orchestra is planning further anniversary celebrations in October with the premiere of Heartwood Wilding, a work commissioned from composer James Francis Brown inspired by the ‘wilding’ of Heartwood Forest, near St Albans.
Tickets for Saturday, July 2 are priced at £18 (nave), £13 (aisle), £5 students, £2 accompanied children, and are available from ticketsource.co.uk, or email tickets@saso.org.uk, or call 01525 862097 or 07976 800445.
The concert starts at 7.30pm.
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