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  • Hays Symphony 2023-2024 Season Announcement

Dear friends,

Welcome to the 2023-24 season of the Hays Symphony! We have some great concerts planned, beginning with Let’s Dance, featuring dance-inspired classics from rhumbas and tangos to Hungarian dances and polkas. Nordic Adventure will feature music from Denmark and Finland. Cantus Articus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara incorporates birdsong into a beautiful and lush orchestral soundscape. We will close that program with Sibelius’s majestic and enthralling Symphony No. 5. Our Children’s Halloween Concert, Symphony in Space, will feature music from Holst’s The Planets, Star Wars, E.T., and much more, all accompanying an original tale of an alien wandering through the solar system. This December, we are bringing back our Holiday Pops concert, featuring some of your favorite sounds of the season (and a few musical surprises as well). In February, the winners of the 2nd Annual FHSU Concerto/Aria Competition will showcase their brilliant performances in a concert highlighting our home-grown talent. Also in February, guest conductor Zhang Yue will lead the orchestra in a celebration of the Chinese New Year. Our final concert of the season, Tragedy and Triumph, will bring together the Hays Symphony and FHSU Choirs for Mozart’s elegant and sublime Coronation Mass. We will bring the season to an exciting close with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a bold, expressive, and thrilling masterpiece by the beloved composer. 

 

Nothing beats the experience of live music, performed with passion by the wonderful members of our orchestra. As always, concerts are free and open to all. Should you wish to provide financial support to help maintain this cultural gem of western Kansas, donations are always welcome. For more information, please visit https://www.hayssymphony.org/support-us

 

Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you soon for the 2023-24 season!

 

Brian Buckstead,

 

Music Director

Hays Symphony 2023-2024 Season Full Concert Schedule

Outdoor Pops Concert: Let’s Dance

Friday, August 25, 2023

7:30 p.m. – Hays Pavilion 

 

Benjamin – Jamaican Rhumba

Albeniz – Tango in D

Chabrier – Habanera

Beethoven – selections from 12 Contredanses

Brahms – Hungarian Dance No. 1

Copland – “Saturday Night Waltz” from Rodeo

Dvorak – Slavonic Dance No. 8

Faure – Pavane 

Grieg – “Anitra’s Dance” from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1

Strauss – Pizzicato Polka

Falla – “Ritual Fire Dance” from El amor brujo

 

Nordic Adventure

Saturday, September 23, 2023

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Nielsen – Overture to Maskarade

Rautavaara – Cantus Arcticus: Concerto for Birds and Orchestra

Sibelius – Symphony No. 5

Children’s Halloween Concert: Symphony in Space

Sunday, October 29, 2023

2:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Strauss – “Fanfare” (Intro-Sunrise) from Also Sprach Zarathustra

Herrmann – “Prelude” from Fahrenheit 451

Holst – Selections from The Planets

Williams – Theme from E.T.

Williams – Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Goldsmith – Star Trek Through the Years

Williams – Star Wars Medley

Holiday Pops

Saturday, December 2, 2023

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Wendel – “Overture to a Merry Christmas” from A Classical Christmas Suite

Vaughan Williams – Fantasia on Greensleeves

Berlin – White Christmas

Wendel – “We Three Kings (So Unfinished Are…)” from A Classical Christmas Suite

Martin – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Cohen – A Klezmer Nutcracker

Wendel – “Jingle Fourth” from A Classical Christmas Suite

Amundson – Angels’ Dance

Leontovich – Carol of the Bells

Wendel – “Little Bolero Boy” from A Classical Christmas Suite

FHSU Concerto/Aria Winner’s Concert

Saturday, February 10, 2024

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Repertoire to be announced

A Chinese New Year Celebration with guest conductor Zhang Yue

Saturday, February 17, 2024

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Repertoire to be announced

Tragedy and Triumph

Saturday, April 20, 2024

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Mozart – Mass in C major, K. 317 (Coronation Mass)

Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

 

  • Hays Symphony 2022-2023 Season Announcement

Dear friends,

 

Welcome to the 2022-23 season of the Hays Symphony! Our first performance, Pops Potpourri, will feature light-hearted and jazz-tinged classics from Leroy Anderson and Morton Gould, two of America’s greatest crossover composers. American Tapestry will feature Ivalah Allen singing Samuel Barber’s lush and nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Three rarely-heard works by the great American composers David Diamond, Wallingford Riegger, and Morton Gould will complete our sonic tapestry. Our Children’s Halloween Concert, Disney Magic, will be fun-filled afternoon of Disney favorites, including Aladdin, Pirates of the Caribbean, Frozen, and more. This December, the Hays Symphony is honored to perform in the beloved Cathedral Concert at the beautiful Basilica of St. Fidelis. Join us as the choirs, ensembles, students, and faculty of FHSU ring in the holiday season. In February, the winners of the inaugural FHSU Concerto/Aria Competition will showcase the real talent we have right here at Fort Hays State University. Our final concert of the season, Evocations, will feature Kansas’s own teenage virtuoso harpist, Jenna Teichler, performing Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s evocative Concertino for Harp and Orchestra. Expressive and defiant masterpieces by Georges Bizet and Dmitry Shostakovich will bring the season to a rousing close. 

 

Thank you for supporting the Hays Symphony, and I look forward to seeing you soon for the 2022-23 season!

 

Brian Buckstead,

Music Director

Hays Symphony 2022-2023 Season Full Concert Schedule

 

Outdoor Pops Concert: Pops Potpourri

Friday, August 26, 2022

7:30 p.m. – Hays Pavilion 

 

Richard Hayman – Pops Hoedown

Leroy Anderson – Jazz Legato

Leroy Anderson – Jazz Pizzicato

Morton Gould – Yankee Doodle

Leroy Anderson – Fiddle-Faddle

Leroy Anderson – Plink, Plank, Plunk!

Leroy Anderson – Syncopated Clock

George Gershwin – Lullaby

Morton Gould – “Pavanne” from Symphonette No. 2

Morton Gould – American Salute

 

 

Masterworks I Concert: American Tapestry

Saturday, October 1, 2022

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Guest soloist: Ivalah Allen, soprano

 

David Diamond – Rounds for String Orchestra

Samuel Barber – Knoxville: Summer of 1915

Wallingford Riegger – Dance Rhythms

Morton Gould – Symphonette No. 2 

Children’s Concert: Disney Magic

Sunday, October 30, 2022

2:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Disney Magic (arr. Lowden)

Disney Supertime (arr. Lowden)

Aladdin (arr. Mortimer)

Pirates of the Caribbean (arr. Ricketts)

Music from Frozen (arr. Krogstad)

Pixar Movie Favorites (arr. Brown)

Cathedral Concert

Sunday, December 11, 2022

3:30 p.m. – Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria

 

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (arr.Schoenfeld)

A Classical Christmas Suite (arr. Wendel)

and much more

Masterworks II Concert: FHSU Concerto/Aria Winner’s Concert

Saturday, February 18, 2023

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Repertoire and soloists to be announced

Masterworks III Concert: Evocations

Saturday, April 22, 2023

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

Guest soloist: Jenna Teichler, harp

 

Georges Bizet – Selections from Carmen

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Concertino for Harp and Orchestra

Dmitry Shostakovich – Symphony No. 9

  • Interview with High Plains Public Radio:

https://www.hppr.org/hppr-arts-culture-history/2021-10-27/instruments-of-terror-hays-symphony-orchestras-free-halloween-concert-returns-this-sunday

  • Hays Symphony 2021-2022 Season Announcement

Dear friends,

 

Welcome to the 2021-22 season of the Hays Symphony! I am thrilled to be back, reuniting with you and the wonderful musicians of the Hays Symphony. We are all excited to welcome you back inside the concert hall, with the unbeatable energy of in-person, live performances. Our upcoming season is full of surprises, from contemporary masterpieces to unforgettable classics. We will begin with our Outdoor Pops Concert, Broadway Tonight, a celebration of your favorite shows, from West Side Story to Hamilton. Our Season Opening Gala concert will feature three nature-inspired works by the great American composers Philip Glass, Alan Hovhaness, and William Grant Still. Our Children’s Halloween Concert, Creepy Classics, will be full of mischief, as we perform Night on Bald Mountain, music from Harry Potter, Psycho, and more. New this year is our Holiday Pops Concert, featuring some of your favorite music of the season. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, music from A Charlie Brown Christmas, and a Christmas Carol sing-along are just a few of the treats in store for December. I will put down my baton and take out my violin during our February Concert, which features composer Max Richter's reimagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, as well as three other works that reinterpret the music and musical style of the past. In May, our final Masterworks Concert will feature French composer Francis Poulenc’s beautiful Gloria, with the wonderful FHSU choirs, under the direction of Terry Crull. as well as Hector Berlioz’s rambunctious and revolutionary Symphonie Fantastique. For the full concert schedule and details, see below.

 

Thank you for supporting the Hays Symphony, and I look forward to seeing you soon for live music!

 

Brian Buckstead, Music Director

Hays Symphony 2021-2022 Season Full Concert Schedule

 

Outdoor Pops Concert – Broadway Tonight

Saturday, August 28, 2021

7:30 p.m. – Hays Pavilion 

 

Chase – Broadway Tonight!

Bernstein – West Side Story Selections

Hamlisch – A Chorus Line

Rodgers – Richard Rodgers Portrait

Bock – Fiddler on the Roof Overture

Schwartz – Highlights from Wicked

Miranda – Suite from Hamilton

Season Opening Gala – The Western Hemisphere

Saturday, September 25, 2021

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Glass – The Canyon

Hovhaness – Symphony No. 2 (Mysterious Mountain)

Still – Symphony No. 5 (The Western Hemisphere)

Children’s Halloween Concert – Creepy Classics

Sunday, October 31, 2021

2:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

 

Saint-Saëns – Danse macabre

Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain

Grieg – "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1

Bernard Herrmann – Suite from Psycho

Hector Berlioz – "March to the Scaffold" from Symphonie fantastique

Williams – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Symphonic Suite

 

 

Holiday Pops

Saturday, December 4, 2021

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

Coleridge-Taylor – Christmas Overture

Krogstad – The Bells of Christmas

Holcombe/Rothrock – Festive Sounds of Hanukah

Tchaikovsky – Nutcracker Suite

Guaraldi/Pugh – A Charlie Brown Christmas

Krogstad – Christmas at the Movies

L. Mozart – Sleigh Ride

Anderson – Sleigh Ride

Munford – A Christmas Carol Sing-Along

 

 

February Concert – Past Meets Present

Saturday, February 19, 2022

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

Richter – The Four Seasons Recomposed

Stravinsky – Pulcinella Suite

Prokofiev – Symphony No. 1 (Classical)

 

 

Masterworks Concert – Voyage to France

Sunday, May 1, 2022

7:30 p.m. – Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center

(Shared concert with FHSU choirs)

 

Poulenc – Gloria 

Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique

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