The Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is proud to celebrate another successful season filled with family-friendly concerts, interactive orchestra experiences, student-focused orchestra performances, and exceptional orchestral training for our student musicians in Birmingham, Alabama.
The ASO continued its mission to create interactive orchestral programming for young audiences across the state of Alabama. This year, ASO partnered with Shaheed and DJ Supreme to create a fun and engaging symphony experience promoting movement and interaction with classical music. The Birmingham duo, known as KRU, joined the ASO to perform a show with orchestral arrangements written specifically for this collaboration. Altogether, they appeared on stage with the orchestra six times.
The ASO also collaborated with the Birmingham Children’s Theatre to bring to life the musical adventure of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. Musicians were joined on stage by actors and a narrator, using the orchestra as a tool for storytelling, making it an educational and engaging symphony experience perfect for all ages. This week-long residency with BCT featured seven performances, including four field trip concerts and one show completely translated to Spanish. This marked a first for ASO’s Education Programming, striving to provide meaningful orchestra experiences to all students in the Birmingham area and beyond.
This season, the talented Candace Neal Pappas returned for the premiere of her program “The Great Orchestra Experience: Where Science Meets the Symphony.” This educational concert incorporated STEM concepts from the Alabama state educational curriculum, pairing them with some of the most recognizable orchestra excerpts. Students were taken on an engaging journey as they discovered types of energy, all with the help of the orchestra and Maestro Chris Confessore.
In the classroom, ASO musicians visited schools across the state through the INSPIRE program. This initiative takes a chamber group of ASO musicians to schools, where they perform and share insights into their lives as musicians. ASO also continued its partnership with i3 Academy, providing 15 hands-on music learning opportunities with an ASO musician to their music class. ASO’s conductors, Carlos Izcaray and Daniel Cho, also visited ensemble classes at Vestavia Hills schools to share their talents and insights with young musicians. The INSPIRE program is set to reach over 1,000 students this year in over 20 different classrooms.
Daniel Cho celebrates another season as the Conductor and Music Director of the Alabama Symphony Youth Orchestra (ASYO). This ensemble is dedicated to nurturing talent, building community, and empowering students in Alabama. The group consists of 68 of the brightest young musicians from throughout the state who gather each Sunday to share their talents and aspirations. The group will perform their final concert for the season on May 3rd at 2:00 pm at the Alys Stephens Center. This free program, presented by the leading youth orchestra in Alabama, is the perfect way to nurture students’ interest in classical music.
In a world filled with distractions, ASO remains committed to serving the students of Alabama through our educational concerts, INSPIRE visits, and the Alabama Symphony Youth Orchestra. This year alone, ASO has reached over 35,000 students from 40 counties and is continuously working toward expanding its reach, aiming to bring the ASO to every county in the state.
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement of our programs. Together, we are fostering a love for music that will inspire generations to come.
-Megan Haller, Education Initiatives Manager