Augusta Symphony Celebrates Hometown for 70th
Our May concert with the Augusta Symphony was significant in multiple ways. Firstly, the concert wrapped up a multi-season engagement with the ASO. While our previous 2022 collaboration at the historic Miller Theater explored the Czech Republic in music and images with Czech Journeys and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, this year’s collaboration centered around a new visual-musical commission.
Adding to this follow-up collaboration, this season marks the orchestra’s 70th anniversary, so the orchestra wanted to pull out all the stops for their season closer. For that, the emphasis was placed on “Celebrating Augusta,” both the concert title and the title of the new visual accompaniment. Celebrating Augusta turned the focus on both the community and the many facets of the surrounding CSRA (Central Savannah River Area).
Nicholas Bardonnay began talking with Maestro Dirk Meyer and the ASO team in the year leading up to the concert. The idea evolved into having both present-day and historic photo submissions for a then & now format. They also landed on the perfect musical pairing, movements 3 & 4 from William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1. For the photo submissions, the ASO asked its community “What does Augusta mean to you?”
Over 5,000 submissions made up the image pool that Nicholas eventually curated and choreographed to the Grant Still music. In the home of James Brown and the Masters Golf Tournament, the topics for the new piece ranged from Augusta’s historic cityscape, landscape, nature & the four seasons, portraits of everyday life, local festivals, food & nightlife, sports, and of course, all served up with a dash of southern hospitality.
Alongside the many individual photographers who submitted images, there were several important local project partners. Destination Augusta, the Greater Augusta Arts Council, and Augusta University supplied well over a thousand images from their photo collections covering a range of current topics. The historic sections of the piece were given a big bump when both the Lucy Craft Laney Museum and Historic Augusta provided selections from their extensive archives.
In addition to the new Celebrating Augusta piece, the concert also featured a spirited opening with Khatchaturian’s Suite from Spartacus, Bernstein’s Candide Overture, a wonderful rendition of Lalo’s Cello Concerto by cellist Neil Krishnan, Respighi’s Pines of Rome, and a surprise encore featuring Dragon’s arrangement of America the Beautiful alongside more of our giant screen imagery from some of America’s most cherished places.
(Featured photographs provided by the Greater Augusta Arts Council, Andy Hunter, the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, Gerald Woods, Sanjeev Singhal, Augusta University, and Joe White.)
