Knox County Symphony to host Fall Concert and dinner Oct. 25

The Knox County Symphony continues its 60th season with its annual Fall Concert on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the R. R. Hodges Chapel Auditorium at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

As a special treat, the symphony is hosting a Fabulous Fall Feast prior to the concert. The catered dinner, which costs $30 per person — part of which benefits the symphony — begins at 5:30 p.m. at The Barn on the Nazarene university campus. Attendees must reserve in advance by Oct. 18, either by contacting Sarah Goslee Reed at 740-507-3579 or by visiting the symphony website at knoxcountysymphony.org.

Single tickets for the concert cost $10 for adults and $7 for senior citizens. Students with a valid ID may attend free of charge.

The centerpiece of the concert will be Vasily Kalinnikov’s Symphony no. 1, a lyrical, spirited work completed in 1895. Well known among Russian musicians during his short life, Kalinnikov (1866–1901) was admired by Tchaikovsky and counted Rachmaninoff as a close friend. Knox County Symphony Conductor Benjamin Locke has written that the composer “masterfully utilizes Russian folk tunes in his compositions, and certainly one or two permeate his Symphony no. 1.”

The symphony exemplifies the “sheer, exhilarating energy” of Kalinnikov’s best work, according to composer and scholar Jonathan Blumhofer. The first movement “kicks off with its sweeping opening theme and never looks back,” Blumhofer wrote in an article for the online arts magazine The Arts Fuse. The third movement’s “earthy romp,” he continued, leads to “a finale that’s a tour-de-force,” including passages that are “surely one of the most exuberant concluding symphonic episodes in the 19th-century symphonic canon.”

The Oct. 25 program also includes "Danse Macabre," by Camille Saint-Saëns; the “March of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev’s second suite drawn from his ballet Romeo and Juliet; "the Thunder and Lightning Polka," by Johann Strauss Jr.; and "the Andante" from Franz Josef Haydn’s Surprise Symphony (Symphony no. 94).

Founded in 1965, the Knox County Symphony comprises more than 60 musicians, including many local community members along with students from Kenyon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and area high schools. Locke has conducted the ensemble since 1984.

For more information about the symphony, its season, and the Fabulous Fall Feast, see the group’s website at knoxcountysymphony.org.