It’s only March, but the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is already preparing for their next season of concerts, which kicks off in late September and runs through May 2025.
Now firmly settled into his position as the symphony’s music director since his official appointment in June 2023, Geoffrey Robson will serve as conductor for most of the upcoming season’s Masterworks series. The one exception is guest conductor and Berkeley Symphony Music Director Joseph Young, who will join ASO on Jan. 25-26, 2025, for a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Ballade in A Minor for Orchestra,” William Dawson’s “Negro Folk Symphony” and Franz Liszt’s “Piano Concerto No. 1,” featuring pianist Zee Zee — “a powerful, passionate and compelling representation of pure artistry,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Four of the other five Masterworks programs also have a soloist. Pianist Aaron Diehl, who the New York Times lauded for his “melodic precision, harmonic erudition, and elegant restraint,” will lend his talents to George Gershwin’s “Piano Concerto in F” (Sept. 28-29). Cellist Andrei Ioniță, described by The Times of London as “one of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade,” will play on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Nov. 2-3). Violinist Simone Porter, whose “assured, lovingly lyrical, occasionally frisky playing” caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times, will be featured on “Violin Concerto No. 1” by Philip Glass (Feb. 22-23, 2025). And Leanna Renfro, ASO’s principal oboist, will be spotlighted in Jean Françaix’s “L’Horloge de Flore” (April 5-6, 2025). The final show of the season will be dedicated to a performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 7” (May 3-4, 2025).
Full programs for the 2024-2025 Masterworks concerts can be found here.
As always, the season will also include several concerts from the symphony’s Pops series: “Home for the Holidays” (Dec. 20-22); “Broadway Rocks” (Feb. 8-9, 2025); “Symphonic Superheroes” (March 8-9, 2025); and “Circus at the Symphony” (May 10-11, 2025). More on those here.
All performances will be held at Robinson Center, except for the River Rhapsodies Chamber Music series at the Clinton Presidential Center, which has yet to be announced. Individual tickets will go on sale in the summer, but season tickets are available now.