Marietta-based Georgia Symphony Orchestra (GSO) sent the following announcement about a sensory-friendly concert on Saturday, March 12 at the Marietta Performing Arts Center:

(Marietta, Ga., Feb. 28 2022) Sensory-sensitive music lovers are invited to express themselves however they feel comfortable and enjoy a concert of classical orchestral music with their families at the Georgia Symphony’s Sensory Friendly Concert. The performance will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 12, 2022, at the Marietta Performing Arts Center.

This unique and extraordinary performance is intended to create a safe and positive musical experience for members of an often-underserved community in the metro Atlanta area. An annual event, the concert has been funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts every year since its inception in 2016.

“This is not your typical orchestral program,” said GSO’s Music Director and conductor Timothy Verville. “We encourage the audience to respond to the music however they choose, whether that be moving around the concert hall, dancing or vocalizing along with the music.”

The 50-minute program includes Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major by Johann Sebastian Bach, Capriol Suite by Peter Warlock, Gabriel’s Oboe by Ennio Morricone and selections by Frederick Delius, Karl Jenkins and John-Baptiste Lully. The GSO Chorus also will perform Johannes Brahm’s How Lovely is My Dwelling Place and Eric Whitacre’s Sing Gently.

Attendees will find the environment carefully modified – the lighting will be softened, the volume moderated, and the musical selections will be introduced and explained by Verville. A Quiet Zone also is provided.

Pre-concert, the audience is invited to experience an instrument ‘Petting Zoo’ sponsored by Miss LaLa’s Arts of Cobb, LLC, and to interact with the musicians following the performance.

General admission tickets are $10. For information on the GSO’s health and safety protocols and to purchase tickets online, visit tickets.georgiasymphony.org.

About the Georgia Symphony Orchestra

The Georgia Symphony Orchestra began in 1951 with the formation of the Marietta Music Club.

According to the GSO website:

The music room of Arthur F. Moor’s home on 383 Church Street in Marietta would establish the foundations for what would evolve over the next sixty-plus years. Talented local musicians would come together to create and share wonderful music with audiences. From 1955 until 1989, Betty Shipman Bennett conducted the orchestra through this long period of development. The music club grew to become the Marietta Community Symphony.

The orchestra was later renamed the Cobb Symphony as more professional musicians were added to the staff, and in 2011 it became the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

The GSO states as its mission:

The mission of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra is to enrich our community through accessible, high quality musical and educational experiences that instill a lifelong appreciation for the arts.