Symphony sets themes for March performances

The Jacksonville Symphony will celebrate Camille Saint-Saëns, Harry Potter, and Rodgers and Hammerstein with concerts during March.

Conductor Courtney Lewis will be leading the Jacksonville Symphony in two performances of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. The concerts will begin with Maurice Ravel's La Valse followed by the world premiere of composer Courtney Bryan's new work commissioned by Lewis and the Jacksonville Symphony. The power and passion of the Bryan Concert Organ will be on full display when it and the symphony play Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3.

Performances will be at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts at 7:30 pm March 8 and 9.

Music in Jacoby Symphony Hall will change pace when the live orchestra accompanies the film Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince on Saturday, March 15 and Saturday, March 16, with both beginning at 7:00 pm.

The following weekend, the Symphony and conductor Kevin Fitzgerald will present a Rodgers and Hammerstein Celebration. Along with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, special guests will be Broadway vocalists Ashley Brown and Jordan Donica. This tribute performance will spotlight Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's scores from Broadway hits such as South Pacific, Carousel, and The Sound of Music – three musicals for which plenty of poster printing has been done over the years.

These performances have been scheduled for March 22 at 11:00 am and 7:30 pm, and March 23 at 7:30 pm.