The Symphony of Southeast Texas is proud to announce our new season, Platinum Jubilee: A Celebration of Resilience. Seventy years of continuous symphonic music, and our goal for this year is to celebrate; to start each concert with a fanfare and feature programs and guest artists we are sure you’ll enjoy. It is an honor to provide our ever-growing community with a first-rate symphony orchestra playing exciting music.
The amazing Maestro Chelsea Tipton II, celebrating his 14th year with SOST, leads us in our season opener on September 17, 2022. Our first Classic Series concert, Enduring Love, features violinist Lara St John. Starting her musical journey at the tender age of four, she has traveled the world from her homeland of Ontario to study with renown violin masters from Cleveland to New York, Philadelphia, onto Moscow before returning to Ontario. Lara will be playing Korngold’s Violin Concerto, a charming piece that is at once accessible and reminiscent of the best of movie themes. Our concert concludes with a beloved lighthearted classic by Richard Strauss, the suite from the comic opera Der Rosenkavalier.
The first Pops concert, A Texas Tribute, will be October 15th when Kelli and Bob Phillips of Texas Country Reporter fame join us in an original program of your favorite Texas music and stories. The seven movements of the concert are spread over the course of the evening, interspersed with favorite Texas and western-themed selections. Help us give our hometown heroes a hearty Southeast Texas welcome!
Our November 12th Classic Series II concert includes Saint-Saëns’ Piano concerto no. 2, a classic example of how setting and musical norms can create the stage for a musical idea. This popular work is a command force piece for the pianist, and our featured artist this evening is Daniel Hsu, the recent Bronze Medal winner of the Cliburn International Piano Competition. Our concert continues with Claude Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn. Debussy viewed this work, inspired by poet Stephane Mallarme, as a sensual setting in Greek and Roman mythology. Igor Stravinsky concludes our concert this evening with yet another sense of mysticism and folk tale, Firebird Suite.
Join us December 4th when the SOST orchestra will ring in the holiday season with our Home for the Holidays concert. We are proud to welcome back, America’s Got Talent finalist Daniel Emmet. Daniel sleigh rides back to Beaumont, this time with all your favorite Christmas music to enjoy with the whole family!
We return in 2023 with our Classic Series III concert on February 4th. Schumann’s Fourth Symphony is an experience that is quite different than your typical classical symphonic work, yet lush with broad sweeping melodies reminiscent of his art songs which preceded this symphony. Our final work of the evening is yet another masterpiece that was the center of great discussion and is considered one of the finest and most difficult works for the cello, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto will be played by cellist Julian Schwarz. Heralded from a young age as a cellist destined to rank among the greatest of the 21st century, Julian’s powerful tone, effortless virtuosity, and extraordinarily large color palette are hallmarks of his style.
Our second Pops concert on March 4th will have you dancing in your seat and tapping your toes to the beat! Leading us Up, Up and Away, toward the next 70 SOST years, we will bring you back to the music you loved during the 60s and 70s. It probably included songs like Aquarius, Wedding Bell Blues and even Up, Up and Away. Leading the vocals on all those memories and more are our guest artists tonight, Marilyn McCoo and husband Billy Davis Jr., superstars of the Fifth Dimension. As we celebrate 70 years of great music, our guests represent their 70s hits we know you’ll love.
We are pulling out all the stops for our season finale on April 1, Fanfare and Fortitude. Before the heavens open in our last epic concert of the season, Maestro Tipton treats us to gentler symphonic movements of lute dances from Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances. SOST is pleased to conclude this Anniversary season with the greatest of pieces, Carmina Burana, a grand production of Symphonic literature. Carl Orff brings to the stage a full complement of instruments, choirs, and vocal soloists; clearly giving our SOST a chance to shine and send us home very grateful that these 70 years resulted in enjoying great music, whether it is soft and gentle or bombastic, yet all harmonious.
Season tickets are available now through November 12th. Prices range from $125-$286 depending on where you sit. This includes the 4 Classic Series concerts and the 2 Pops concerts.
Single tickets go on sale September 1 and prices range from $33-$57 for the Classic Series and $36-$78 for the Pops Series concerts. The holiday concert will be $50 for adults and $15 for students.
Our deepest thanks go out to our concert sponsors: Allegiance Bank, American Valve & Hydrant, Baptist Hospitals, BASF, Capital Farm Credit, Christus Hospitals, CommunityBank of Texas, Downtown Beaumont Cultural Arts District, Edaren Foundation, ExxonMobil, Hancock Whitney, HEB, Mason Construction, Mobiloil Credit Union, Natalie and S.L. Greenberg, Regina Rogers, Rosine McFaddin Wilson, Sandra Clark, The Modern Group, and TOTAL Energies. Sponsors like this help the Symphony of Southeast Texas play a role in the education, entertainment, and cultural enrichment of all residents of Southeast Texas.
The Symphony of Southeast Texas, celebrating its 70th season, is a regional, professional orchestra based in Beaumont, Texas. The Symphony performs a number of subscription concerts, educational programs, and other events throughout Southeast Texas each year. SOST’s home base is the Julie Rogers Theatre in downtown Beaumont. The orchestra is composed of local musicians from the Beaumont vicinity, as well as many musicians from the Houston and Lake Charles areas.
For information on SOST’s concerts this season, please check our website at sost.org or call the Symphony Office at (409) 892-2257.
Michelle Walker, Marketing Director
The Symphony of Southeast Texas
4345 Phelan Blvd., Suite 105 Beaumont, TX 77707
Cell: (214) 662-2930 Office: (409) 892-2257 Fax: (409) 892-0117
Email: mwalker@sost.org Website: sost.org
