WEATHER UPDATE: Tonight’s performance will be indoors at the rain site at Alexander Twilight Theatre at VTSU Lyndon, 1069 College Rd, Lyndonville VT. Doors will open at 6:30pm and the show will begin at 7:30 pm. We’ll see you there!

Tickets for this concert are SOLD OUT.

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. Three works will be elevated by live narration by actor/director Jarvis Green and special guest Jay Craven, Artistic Director of Kingdom County Productions. John Williams’ piece Liberty Fanfare is performed alongside a reading of Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait includes writings by Abraham Lincoln, and a reading of Calvin Coolidge’s speech “Vermont Is a State I Love” rounds out the concert.

Fireworks will conclude the performance.

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