Axe ’Em, Jacks!
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Experience an unforgettable Halloween “spooktacular” concert with the Stephen F. Austin State University Symphony Orchestra when the student ensemble performs Hector Berlioz’s “Symphony Fantastique” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, in Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.
Under the baton of Dr. Gregory Grabowski, director of orchestral activities at SFA, the first piece to be performed on the concert is Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz,” painting a vivid portrait of the Dance of Death and featuring School of Music faculty member Dr. Minhae Lee on piano.
Grabowski described Berlioz’s “Symphony Fantastique” as “groundbreaking work, completely unique for its time.”
“The piece follows a narrative of a heartbroken artist who overdoses on opium and dreams of his beloved,” Grabowski explains. “She has become a melody he hears everywhere, and just like how dreams transform, so does this melody.
“Each movement transforms into a new dream,” he added, “one at a ball, another in the countryside, being marched off to the scaffold after finding out the artist inadvertently killed his beloved, before finally ending in the Witch’s Sabbath full of spirits, sorcerers and monsters of every kind.”
Tickets are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $3 for students and youth. To purchase tickets, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit the box office website. For additional information, contact the SFA School of Music at (936) 468-4602.