Musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony and Music Director Courtney Lewis.
“The Jacksonville Symphony will add a new jazz series, perform two world premieres and celebrate the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s birth in the 2023-24 season,” writes Tom Szaroleta in Monday’s (5/8) Florida Times-Union. “The symphony will also present Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ as its annual opera, play along with ‘E.T.’ and ‘Home Alone’ and perform symphonic versions of the music of Carole King, Cole Porter, Billy Joel and Earth, Wind & Fire in its Pops series. The season will open with a pair of free community concerts, scheduled for Sept. 15-16, and run through June 8, 2024. Most shows are in the Jacoby Symphony Hall…. The season includes 11 weekends of Classical Series performances, including plenty of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. ‘Carmen’ will be conducted by Courtney Lewis, the symphony’s music director, on April 12 and 14…. The Symphony in 60 Series, in which the symphony plays an hour-long after-work show, will be back … A new Jazz series, curated by James Jenkins, the symphony’s principal tuba player, includes guest performances by the Mid-Century Modern Combo and the Turtle Island Quartet…. The symphony will perform new compositions by Lowell Liebermann and Courtney Bryan for the first time anywhere.”
