Bold and Bombastic Beethoven

Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra with guest John Paul Ksiazek, piano

Beethoven used a novel approach while creating the heroic Emperor Concerto; it was a time of great change for him during a war-ridden era and time to let go of old habits.  This concerto hints at the larger than life works that would herald Beethoven’s new musical style.  At the time, Vienna was under siege by Napoleon’s armies.  Beethoven wrote that there was “nothing but drums, cannons, men, and misery” around him and fled to his brother’s cellar, covering his ears with pillows to protect his fading hearing.  That sounds like ideal circumstances under which to compose, right?  No cannons will be harmed in the performance of the Emperor Concerto.

By contrast, Beethoven’s symphony #4 was a sunny, cheerful musical side trip distracting him from completing the emotionally demanding 5th symphony.  When in doubt, procrastinate!  Critics at the time praised the symphony’s “richness of ideas, bold originality, and fullness of power”.  Less often played than the ever-popular 5th and 9th symphonies, nevertheless, the fourth symphony is sublime and richly expressive.

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with the LSO!

Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra  with guest Josh Davies, trumpet

Come hear toe-tapping selections from “Riverdance”, by Irish composer William Whelan, to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!  A man of many talents, Whelan has helped produce music by Kate Bush, U2, and Van Morrison.  In 2011, Whelan won the UCD Foundation Day Medal in recognition of his ground-breaking Irish musical achievements over the years.  Whelan’s original music captures the excitement of Irish dance tunes, captivating audiences all over the world.

Oskar Böhme thrived musically following his move to St. Petersburg, Russia from Germany, experiencing success as an orchestral musician, composer, soloist, and teacher.  The trumpet concerto was one of his most famous works.  Josh Davies will bring its brilliant lyricism, complex passagework, and playful skipping melodies to LSO’s appreciative audiences.  Though Böhme’s career, and ultimately his life, was sadly cut short by the dictatorship of Josef Stalin, this virtuosic, high-spirited work makes his music appeal to new generations.

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Pirates, Wolves, and Samurai - oh my!

Come hear all of your favourite cinematic tunes!  The LSO will bring to life movie themes over the years from Pirates of the Caribbean, Band of Brothers, The Deer Hunter, Dances with Wolves, and the Adventures of Indiana Jones.  From swash-buckling bravado to tender love ballads, you’ll be smitten with every minute of this magnificent concert.  Buy your tickets early, because every seat will be filled - and you’ll be on the edge of yours.

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

An Old-World Composer Celebrates the New

Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra with guest artist Joan Rogers, clarinet

One of the most popular symphonies ever, a tape recording of the New World Symphony was even taken to the moon by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 mission for the first moon landing in 1969.  Dvorak’s symphony #9 was described by Leonard Bernstein as “truly multinational in its foundations”.  Dvorak was inspired by the wide open spaces of North America and this music conveys his feelings to listeners.  We can certainly understand his passion, living on the prairies as we do.  Come enjoy what Dvorak described as “folk songs of America”.

Mozart’s clarinet concerto was his swan song, his last completed work and his only one for the clarinet.  Drawing on the full range of the clarinet, the music ranges from cheerful themes to darker moody sounds, a dramatic showcase for the solo instrument. There is no one in our community better suited to play this work of demanding virtuosity than LSO’s principal clarinet, Joan Rogers.

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Presented by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels

A work of thanks-giving for all that is good in life.

Featuring guest artists

Madison Craig, soprano

Camille Rogers, mezzo-soprano

Jason Ragan, tenor

Peter Monaghan, bass

Vox Musica: Joanne Collier, director

LCI Chamber Choir, Erinn Roberts, director

& your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra

Brought to you by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels

Boring paid commissions?  Nah.  Mozart chose to write his Great Mass instead.  Welcome soloists Madison Craig (soprano), Camille Rogers (mezzo-soprano), Jason Ragan (tenor), and Peter Monaghan (bass-baritone) to the LSO stage once again, along with Vox Musica and the LCI Chamber Choir, offering you the pomp and solemnity of Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor.  This large-scale work, considered one of the composer’s greatest, remained unfinished by Mozart. He had vowed to have the work performed in honour of his upcoming wedding, quite the gift for his bride, Constanze, who then sang the “Et incarnatus est” at its premiere. What a team!

Franz Schubert - Symphony No.4 in C Minor (“Tragic”)

W.A. Mozart - Grand Mass in C Minor, K 427 (417a)

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Presented by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels

Haunting and sophisticated textures and tones - a source of wonder.

Sarah Viejou, horn & your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra

Brought to you by Martin Brothers Funeral Chapels

How did you spend your time at age 18?  Strauss wrote his first horn concerto at that age while a student at Munich University. Inspired by his father, a leading horn player of the day, this three-movement work explores the great potential of the horn as a solo instrument. Sarah Viejou, LSO principal horn player, will share with us this most frequently performed horn concerto from the 19th century. 

Beethoven’s Symphony #7, a cheerful energetic work, shows the composer’s musical optimism despite having become deaf.  This symphony boasts brilliant instrumental colours and rich melodies.  One listener early on was convinced this music could only have been written by “someone who was seriously intoxicated” while others praised it as being “most pleasing and comprehensible”.  Come listen and choose for yourself.

Richard Strauss - Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 11

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No.7 in A Major, Op.92
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

A holiday celebration like no other.

Aeris Brass & your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra

Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra and Aeris Brass express a spirit of joy through music meant for the season. The Carol Symphony brings to mind the romance and mystery of the manger.  Join the LSO  for a holiday celebration of light and life, and start off your special holiday season with friends and family with music to charm your soul.

Victor Hely-Hutchinson - A Carol Symphony

Victor Herbert/arr. Langey – March of the Toys from Babes in Toyland Arr. Jerry Brubaker – How the Grinch Stole Christmas Arr. Bob Krogstad – Christmas at the Movies Jim Stephenson – In the Bleak Midwinter G. F. Handel/arr. Schwarz – Concerto for Brass Quintet & Orchestra Traditional arr. Gillis & Rodgers – Westminster Carol

– Good King Wenceslas

J.S. Bach – My Spirit Be Joyful

– Contrapunctus Selections

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Sponsored by Subway Auto

A musical tour around the globe, from a river float to a festival to a glimpse of a phantom.

Tutti Corda; Gabe Kastelic, director & your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra

From an opera at La Scala in Milan to a wild ride in a boat down the Moldau, to a subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House - join the LSO on a musical journey. This program includes a work written in celebration of the Bolshoi Theatre with “energy spilling over like uncorked champagne”; a key march for Hungarian military celebrations that when first heard, compelled the audience to “erupt like a volcano”; and a work written with the composer locked in a room, forced to write quickly, and told to throw each page out the window to waiting scribes when completed. After all that - watch out for the thieving magpie!

Dmitri Shostakovich - Festive Overture, Op. 96

Denis Khvatov - Invitation

Bedrich Smetana - Vltava (The Moldau)

Hector Berlioz - Rakoczy March (Hungarian March) from Faust

Gioacchino Rossini - Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie)

Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings

Andrew Lloyd Webber/arr. Custer - Selections from Phantom of the Opera

Arr. Ralph Ford - Video Games Live

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

Return to tradition through the distinctive style of modern music.

Alayna McNeil, violin (2022 YAC Winner) & your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra

More conventional than his earlier bold works, Prokofiev gives a nod to traditional Russian folk music and hints at a taste of Spain in this concerto, performed by Young Artist Competition winner and LSO violinist Alayna McNeil. Listen for the castanets in the third movement’s theme!

Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere performance of his fifth symphony. His “fate theme” appears in each movement of the work.  The music begins in a somber mood, gradually transforming into a triumphant march, upholding the idea of ultimate victory through strife.  A Boston newspaper review said it “sounds like nothing so much as a horde of demons struggling in a torrent of brandy”.  This we must hear!

Sergei Prokofiev - violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op.63.

Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64

Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Please note that at this time we are only to accept cash and credit.

A Shakespearean adventure.
"To clap or not to clap - that is the question." Join Shakespeare in the Park and the Lethbridge Symphony as we celebrate the musical works inspired by Shakespeare's many plays. Works include the modern Romeo and Juliet from West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, a musical version of "Taming of the Shrew", and many more based on Othello, King Lear, Henry V, and Hamlet.
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Annual Gala & Fundraiser.
French Dining. Live Music. Silent Auction.

Just imagine: wandering down the Champs Elysees, and dining in a fabulous French restaurant with snowy white tablecloths, fine French cuisine, chilled flutes of champagne, romantic torch songs, dancing....

Set aside Saturday evening, April 29th, 2023 for a posh gala featuring live music, fine food, sweetly crooned tunes, and great company! 

The Lethbridge Symphony's annual gala and fundraiser is hosted at Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge, and includes a silent and live auction along with chic entertainment.  Tickets are $150 per person. 

Tickets available until March 30, 2023!  Contact the LSO box office at (403) 328-6808 ext. 101 for tickets to your spring symphony soiree. Tickets can be purchased online at www.lethbridgesymphony.org 

Dinner and dancing? Merveilleux.  Helping the LSO?  Très magnifique!

Join our friends at the French Language Centre!
Brought to you by our friends at the French Language Centre, the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra will be joined by the University of Lethbridge Opera Workshop to showcase the works of prominent French composers. If you enjoy big brass and powerful opera singers, don't miss out on this stunning event that will make you go: C'est manifique!
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Celebrating 100 years of the Southminster Casavant Organ. Neil Cockburn & the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra
Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Casavant organ at Southminster United Church with us. C.P.E Bach's concerto highlights a musical transition between Baroque and Classical style: expressive, turbulent, and dynamic. His music is a contrast in unpredictability and Saint-Saëns pushes boundaries further. Don't miss the iconic melody that made Dracula a household name, as well as other majestic works from C.P.E. Bach and Saint-Saëns!
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Featuring Michael Hope, baritone, and your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra
Join the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra with a holiday celebration for the whole family that will warm your hearts and inspire memories for years to come. Award winning baritone Michael Hope joins your orchestra for a jolly feast of songs such as White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride and a joyous carol sing-along.
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Featuring Michael Hope, baritone, and your Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra
Join the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra with a holiday celebration for the whole family that will warm your hearts and inspire memories for years to come. Award winning baritone Michael Hope joins your orchestra for a jolly feast of songs such as White Christmas, Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride and a joyous carol sing-along.
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Three times the fun!
Settle in for Beethoven, Brahms, and Schultz, as the Lethbridge Symphony and special guests Opus 3 treat you to an incredible evening that features Airdrie Ignas (violin), Christine Bootland (cello), and John-Paul Ksiazek (piano) in breathtaking solo and ensemble performances with the LSO. Classical music lovers, rejoice!
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.

Celebration of the visual artist!
Eric Dyck & the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. Join local legend, Eric Dyck, and the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra in an evening that celebrates the visual arts, whether it be cartoons or animated pictures. Our program features spectacular music from The Prince of Egypt, Frozen, the Barber of Seville, and My Neighbour Totoro, drawn to music of your Lethbridge Symphony.
Doors open 30 minutes before showtime.