Performances

The Civic Orchestra of Jacksonville is thrilled to present our 2019-2020 season!
All concerts are free and open to the public!

Our Next Concert is March 8, 2020  
Deep Exploration
St. Pauls by the Sea – Jacksonville Beach (MAP) • 5pm

  • Introduction to Also sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 (excerpt) – Richard Strauss
  • The Planets, op. 32 – Gustav Holst
  • And God Created Great Whales – Alan Hovhaness
  •  ET Adventures on Earth – John Williams

This free, all-ages concert opens with the Introduction from Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, commonly known as the theme song from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Next, we hear selections from Holst’s The Planets – Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Composed in 1915, these works are thrilling psychological profiles of the planets rooted in Greek and Roman mythology. It is incredible to think that 8 decades later, exploration of these planets through probes and rovers has given us a scientific understanding of these planets’ geological compositions. Holst characterizes Venus as delicate and icy but, NASA’s Mariner 2, which mapped the surface of Venus in 1962, proved that Venus is in fact hot- nearly 500 degrees! This summer, the Mars 2020 spacecraft is expected to launch and land at the Jezero Crater on Feb 18, 2021. One wonders what the next works inspired by the fiery planet may be!

Today, scientists tell us more is known about the surface of mars than our ocean.  Alan Hovhaness’s And God Created Great Whales, which uses live humpback and bowhead whale songs, begins to decode the sounds of the deep sea as he brilliantly blends the sounds of orchestra instruments with recorded whale songs.

Just as great explorers of recent decades have helped to shape our understanding of the world around us, great composers have given us works that push the boundaries of classical music and our emotional response to sound. The concert concludes with John Williams’ ET Adventures on Earth, which perhaps better than any other piece allows the listener to become an adventurer and to imagine what it is like to soar above the earth.

May 3, 2020  
A Celebration of Jewish Composers
Jacksonville Jewish Center (MAP) • 5pm

  • Overture to Les Huguenots – Giacomo Meyerbeer
  • Selections from The Sound of Music – (Arr. Bennett) Rodgers & Hammerstein
  • Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo –  Aaron Copland
  • Scherzo, op. 45 – Karl Goldmark
  • Cole Porter Salute –  (Arr. Whitney) Cole Porter

Previous performances from earlier in the 2019-20 season included:

October 6, 2019
From the New World
St. Johns Cathedral (MAP) • 5pm • Get Your Tickets

  • Cortege et Litanie, op. 19, No. 2 – Marcel Dupré 
    Tim Tuller, organ
  • Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, op. 95 – Antonin Dvorak

October 13, 2019
From the New World
St. Anastasia Catholic Church, St. Augustine (MAP) • 5pm • Get Your Tickets 

  • Cortege et Litanie, op. 19, No. 2 – Marcel Dupré 
    Peter Morin, organ
  • Symphony No. 9 in E minor, From the New World, op. 95 – Antonin Dvorak

December 8, 2019 
Winter Dreams
Terry Concert Hall – Jacksonville University (MAP) • 3pm

  • Les Patineurs (The Skaters) –  Emile Waldteufel
  • Selections from the Nutcracker – Peter Tchaikovsky
  • Finale from Symphony No. 5, op. 82 –  Jean Sibelius