Symphony of Northwest Arkansas Celebrates Music Director Paul Haas’s Penultimate Concert

In Saturday’s (4/12) Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Fayetteville), Monica Hooper writes, “The finale of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas’s 2024-25 MainStage Season will be bittersweet. Even though it got the soloist of its dreams for the symphony’s first-ever performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the concert marks the departure of Paul Haas, who has led the orchestra for 15 seasons…. ‘We really want to use this opportunity to celebrate him and everything that he’s done for this community and this orchestra before he plays his last note with us,’ said Ben Harris, SoNA executive director. Haas announced his plans to leave in August. Following the ‘American Voices: Rhapsody in Blue’ concert, the audience is invited to raise a glass to Haas in the lobby of the Walton Arts Center…. Stewart Goodyear will be the featured soloist for Gershwin’s work … SoNA opens the concert with William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony No. 1 and closes with Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1…. Harris said he’s excited to unveil plans for next season, but this concert will be a celebration of Haas, who will conduct one more time with SoNA, the annual Fourth of July concert at the AMP.”