Marietta-based Georgia Symphony Orchestra distributed the following notice about their final program for the season, featuring The Firebird and Music of Remembrance:

The Georgia Symphony Orchestra concludes its 71^st season on May 21, 2022, with The Firebird and Music of Remembrance, a performance featuring three enchanting, poignant and cherished classical works. The concert will be held at the Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center at Kennesaw State University.

Led by GSO Music Director and Conductor Timothy Verville, the program will feature contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon’s Blue Cathedral, the famed 1919 version of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Luigi Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor.

The orchestra concerto Blue Cathedral is one of Higdon’s most performed works. The composition originally was commissioned to celebrate the 75^th anniversary celebration of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2000. However, it also became a deeply personal tribute to her younger brother, Andrew Blue Higdon, who died in 1998. The work was written to create an atmosphere of reflection and an understanding of life’s journey.

Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite is a collection of music from the ballet of the same name. Inspired by Russian folklore, the music tells the story of the young Prince Ivan and the evil, powerful Kastchel the Deathless, who has captured a young princess with whom Ivan is destined to marry. It is only with the help of the mythical firebird that Ivan’s betrothed is able to be rescued. Stravinsky’s orchestration and writing, ranging from lush and exotic to barbaric, propelled the composer to his early fame.

In 1817, Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor was first performed in a church in France to commemorate the 24^th anniversary of the death of King Louis XVI, and it was an immediate success. Ludwig van Beethoven, who considered Cherubini as one of his greatest contemporaries, even requested the beloved piece to be performed at his funeral. The elegy also features the return of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra Chorus for the first time since the pandemic to a GSO Classics performance.

General admission ticket prices are $39 for adults, $37 for seniors, military or first responders and $12 for students. 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.