Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Opens Season with REVOLUTION!

The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra (RSO) opens its 61^st season on Saturday, September 27^th at 7:30 PM at the Ridgefield Playhouse with a concert titled REVOLUTION.  The concert features the outstanding professional musicians of the RSO, under the leadership of Music Director Eric Mahl and joined in concert by acclaimed violinist George Meyer, performing a program that includes lively, engaging and iconic music from four different centuries.

The concert opens with Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture.  Written in 1791, just three months before the composer’s death, the piece is a blend of sublime and silly, and interestingly the overture is unique in being the composers only purely instrument work that uses trombones.  The overture is followed on the program by living composer Missy Mazzoli’s These Worlds In Us.  Written in 2006 and winner of the 2007 ASCAP Young Composers Award, the title comes from James Tate's poem The Lost Pilot, a meditation on his father's death in World War II.  The concert continues with Claude Debussy’s gorgeous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.  Written in 1894, this piece was shaped by the innovations in visual arts and literature of the time - a period when formal structure took a back seat to mood, atmosphere, and color.  Nearly every aspect of the piece went against the 19^th-century musical conventions.

The performance concludes with American fiddle music, featuring violinist George Meyer, exemplifying the music that influenced the final piece on the program – Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Composed in 1943 as a ballet for the Martha Graham dance company and scored for thirteen instruments, the largest number that could comfortably fit into the pit for the ballet.  The piece was later scored for full orchestra.  Copland, born in Brooklyn, NY and called the “Dean of American Composers”, achieved a “distinctive musical characterization of American themes in an expressive modern style”.  

“To open the season with such an amazing variety of music is exciting, meaningful and fun!” says RSO Executive Director Laurie Kenagy. “The entire 2025/26 season is a celebration of HOME, and what that means to us individually, as a community, and as a nation, tying into the upcoming celebration of the 250^th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Independence – America250.”

The concert will be held on Sunday, September 27th at 7:30 PM at the Ridgefield Playhouse (80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield, CT).  Doors open at 6:00 PM, with a pre-concert talk in the auditorium at 6:30 PM with Music Director Eric Mahl and soloist George Meyer and open to all ticket holders. 

Tickets can be purchased by calling the RSO box office at 203-438-3889 or online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35696/production/1237955?performanceId=11633817

Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Opens Season with REVOLUTION!