LISTEN: GPB’s Kristi York Wooten and City Cafe host John Lemley give us a preview of the classical performances from Atlanta and Savannah this winter and spring.
In the final days of 2025, arts organizations around the state are preparing for next year’s productions featuring patriotic celebrations and symphonic favorites. GPB’s Kristi York Wooten and City Cafe host John Lemley give us a preview of the classical performances from Atlanta and Savannah this winter and spring.
Kristi York Wooten: One of the major themes in 2026 will be America's 250th birthday celebration taking place on July 4th, but reverberating in cultural events across the entire year. Under this patriotic banner, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is performing the work of American composers, Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber, at Symphony Hall on Jan. 29 and Jan. 31 and Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story on Valentine's weekend.
The January event features Copland's Symphony No. 3, led by Grammy-winning conductor Leonard Slatkin, who will also direct the ASO in his own composition, Schubertiade: An Orchestral Fantasy. American violinist Randall Goosby performs as the soloist on Barber's Violin Concerto. The February Bernstein performances will be conducted by Teddy Abrams and also feature clarinet concertos by Copland and Artie Shaw and composer Valerie Coleman's co-commissioned concerto set in the mood of the Harlem Renaissance.
John, tell us why these particular American composers are so beloved.
John Lemley: These composers are so close to our hearts because they have helped define in very different ways what we now think of as the American sound in classical music. Aaron Copland, for instance, is represented on the program by works that help cement his reputation as the so-called dean of American composers. Many of his best known pieces combine open harmonies, folk-inflected rhythms, and a clarity of orchestration that evokes wide landscapes and the optimism of mid-century America.
Barber's style is intensely lyrical and introspective. Programming Barber alongside Copland provides an emotional counterbalance, one outward-looking and one inward-looking. Then we get Bernstein during Valentine's weekend. The ASO is performing the orchestral score to West Side Story, one of Bernstein's greatest achievements because it fuses classical technique with jazz, Latin rhythms, and lots of Broadway energy.
Kristi York Wooten: Another trend in 2026 is that the most famous European composers in classical music, including Beethoven and Mozart, are so well represented in these winter and spring offerings. On Feb. 7 at the Lucas Center for the Arts, the Savannah Philharmonic is presenting Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, "Eroica," alongside Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro. And the Atlanta Opera presents that work, sung in Italian in its entirety, at the Cobb Energy Centre March 14 through 22. John, what is your take on why these Mozart and Beethoven works are so popular right now?
John Lemley: Mozart's music deepens every single character. It lights it up. It illuminates it. The Marriage of Figaro is built on a story about class dynamics, personal agency, and the complexities of relationships, themes that have remained relevant for more than two centuries now. It adapts effortlessly to any setting. So in short, the overture grabs you, the characters feel contemporary, and the music is, simply put, perfect.
Kristi York Wooten: John, thanks so much again for joining me.
John Lemley: Always a pleasure, Kristi. Thank you.
