07/27/18
By Ruth Firestone
Hays music lover
HAYS, Kan. – “Symphonic Expedition” is the theme of the Hays Symphony Orchestra’s 2018-19 season, and it looks like it will be its most glorious venture yet. Under the baton of Shah Sadikov and a host of symphony guild volunteers, the HSO has made steady gains in every direction – innovative repertoire that appeals to a wide range of interests, high quality concerts, and post-concert opportunities for artists and audiences to mingle while enjoying delicious refreshments.

And all this is provided by generous sponsors. Every concert is free and open to all who wish to attend.

For the first time ever, musicians from the FHSU Department of Music and the HSO will perform a pre-season pops concert, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at the Downtown Hays Pavilion, 10th and Main, as part of the Hays Arts Council’s Fall Gallery Walk.

The official season-opener will be at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Beach/Schmidt Performing Arts Center in Sheridan Hall on the FHSU campus. Guest pianist Behzod Abduraimov and the orchestra will perform the “Piano Concerto in A minor,” by Edvard Grieg.

Abduraimov, a native of Uzbekistan, is well-known throughout Europe and the United States. Grieg’s piano concerto is one of those rare compositions that keeps on thrilling audiences whether they have heard it once or a thousand times.

Among other concerts will be the annual Children’s Halloween Concert, with its costumed parade around Beach/Schmidt, featuring Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “The Firebird,” adapted by Catherine Trietschmann and directed by Erin Renard, with local actors.

A Winter Vespers concert in St. Joseph Church, Dec. 1, 7:30 p.m. will star the orchestra and FHSU choirs in Handel’s “Messiah.”

The New Year also holds great promise, with a Valentine’s concert, a Viennese Classics concert, the annual New Music Festival and the Cottonwood International Baroque Masters Festival. The HSO and FHSU Choirs will collaborate in the Grand Finale Concert, with a performance of Rutter’s “Gloria,” Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” (Symphony No. 6 in B minor) and the world premiere of a composition by FHSU’s own Dr. Tim Rolls.

Tickets for all concerts can be reserved on the Symphony’s recently launched website – www.hayssymphony.org.