NOTE: Tonight’s concert will be OUTDOORS at Grafton Trails and Outdoor Center. There are limited advance price tickets available at MKT Grafton in downtown Grafton. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the gate starting at 5:30 pm.

To celebrate the United States’ 250^th birthday, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra hits the road with Summer Festival Tour: America 250, bringing music to communities across the Green Mountain State. There’s nothing quite like a balmy July evening in the Vermont outdoors, especially when the state’s orchestra performs beloved favorites like Morton Gould’s American Salute (based on “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”), Aaron Copland’s Hoe-Down from Rodeo, a lively selection of music by John Williams and John Philip Sousa, and more.

Music Director Andrew Crust invites you to bring a picnic blanket and relax under sunny skies to enjoy this cherished annual tradition. Each location features the VSO’s Musical Petting Zoo before the performance, where audiences young and old can explore a variety of orchestral instruments. Two works are elevated by live narration by actor/director Jarvis Green and Coolidge Interpreter Tracy Messer.  John Williams’ piece Liberty Fanfare is performed alongside a reading of Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” and Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait includes writings by Abraham Lincoln paired with a reading of Calvin Coolidge’s speech “Vermont Is a State I Love.”

PROGRAM

The Star Spangled Banner – Traditional
American Salute – Morton Gould
Liberty Fanfare – John Williams
Variations on America – Charles Ives, arr. Schuman
America 250! – Gwyneth Walker 
Symphony No. 9 (1. Adagio) – Antonín Dvořák

Intermission

Cowboys Overture – John Williams
Hoe-Down from “Rodeo” – Aaron Copland
Rey’s Theme from “The Force Awakens” Suite – John Williams
Chanson de matin – Edward Elgar
Lincoln Portrait – Aaron Copland
Duke Ellington Fantasy – Duke Ellington, arr. Hermann
Stars and Stripes Forever – John Philip Sousa