“In only a few years, the Aiken Symphony Orchestra has tripled the number of concerts it’s offering in a single season,” writes Charmain Brackett in Wednesday’s (7/24) Augusta Chronicle (GA). “ ‘This is our fifth season,” said Dave Allen, the immediate past president of the Aiken Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors. ‘We had three concerts our first year; six the next. Starting in September, we’ll have a total of nine concerts.’ … ‘Many people have retired to Aiken from big cities which had their own symphony,’ he said.… Donald Portnoy has been the symphony’s only conductor. Portnoy retired from the University of South Carolina … spent nearly two decades conducting the Augusta Symphony and … has conducted orchestras around the globe… The season opens on Sept. 14.” The orchestra’s season will feature music by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Barber, Sibelius, Arensky, and Schumann. Two holiday programs will feature Handel’s Messiah and “Home for the Holidays” with vocalist Scarlett Strallen, the Aiken Choral Society, and Aiken Civic Ballet. The season will conclude with a pops concert featuring music by Bernstein, Berlin, Sondheim, and Gershwin.
Posted July 29, 2019
