The Best of John Williams

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Often called “America’s composer,” John Williams has been creating movie music since 1959. Williams has composed the soundtrack for eight of the twenty highest grossing films at the U.S. box office. This October, the Williams musical magic continues as SBSO prepare a Pops performance that pays tribute to even more music from this Hollywood legend.

Holiday Pops Saginaw Sings

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Come celebrate Saginaw’s favorite holiday music tradition! Ring in the holiday season with family and friends as the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Choral Society, Saginaw Bay Youth Orchestra, Saginaw Youth Choir, and guest soloist, Saginaw’s own Todd Michael Hall, featured on NBC’s The Voice, bring us together to enjoy traditional favorites. It is guaranteed to put you and your family in the holiday spirit.

 SBSO Premiere

Saturday, January 29, 2022

The world premiere of KRUPA by Maestro Fakhouri opens the concert followed by concertmaster Eliot Heaton as the soloist in the brilliant Violin Concerto by 20th-century Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. The evening concludes with César Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Franck wrote his only symphony towards the end of his life only because his students persuaded him. This Romantic work is by turns brooding, beatific, explosive, and finally triumphant.

Amadeus

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Enjoy a story about Mozart’s life with a semi-staged version of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus. The SBSO is joined by members of Pit and Balcony Theatre, Saginaw Valley State University’s Concert Choir, and various vocal soloists, singing and playing a broad range of Mozart’s music.

The Enigmatic Shostakovich

Saturday, May 7, 2022

This program is devoted to music by the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who often infused his music with personal and political significance. The Chamber Symphony is a musical obituary he composed for himself in 1960 when he was sick and reluctantly becoming a member of the Communist Party. It summarizes his musical life by including many references to his earlier compositions. Symphony no. 9 marks the end of World War II and the Soviets’ victory over the Nazis in 1945. His friend, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, had long wanted Shostakovich to write a concerto for him, but was warned that if he asked, Shostakovich would refuse. His silence was rewarded in 1959, and Cello Concerto no. 1 became an immediate success.

Recorded Concert

A program for strings, bookended by Romantic works by Grieg, a Norwegian, and Dvořák, from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). In between we hear two seasonal works, Winter by Piazzolla and Winter by Vivaldi, both with the SBSO concertmaster, Eliot Heaton, as soloist.

For ticket information call (989) 755-6471.

Recorded Concert

We go back in time to 18th-century Austria for one of Mozart’s most delightful concertos for horn and orchestra (with SBSO’s own Bruce Bonnell as soloist).  The 20^th-century Brazilian marimba concerto by Ney Rosauro, and Beethoven’s lovely Symphony no. 8 complete the season.

For ticket information call (989) 755-6471.