Festival Orchestra in Monett opens its 47th season on Sunday, Oct. 18, as part of its "America 250: Heritage from the Heartland" theme.
The concert, under music director Carla Wootton, will showcase the first symphony with an American sound: Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s “Symphony No. 1: A Night in the Tropics.” In honor of the nation's birth, the orchestra will play a movement from Kabalevsky's "Youth" Piano Concerto No. 3, featuring orchestra member Jessica Hall as soloist.
The orchestra will also play Aaron Copland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody” from “Appalachian Spring,” a concert setting of “America the Beautiful,” Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and the lively “Firehouse Jig” for strings and percussion by Kansas City Youth Symphony conductor Kirt Mosier.