Cooler, drier weather and a continued decline in COVID-19 cases are giving Mobile Bay area residents extra reason to celebrate this fall, and the Mobile Symphony Orchestra is leaning into that mood with the name of its season opener. The orchestra will present “Celebrate!” at the Saenger Theatre, 6 S. Joachim St., during the first weekend of October, marking the start of its 2021-22 season with a full-strength ensemble for the first time since the pandemic began.
Music Director Scott Speck said the concert carries extra meaning after a difficult year and a half for live performance. “This is kind of our concert of reviving and healing, I guess,” Speck said. That revival shows up most visibly on stage: the orchestra will perform with a full complement of 65 musicians, after pandemic-era safety measures limited the ensemble to 30 members or fewer, safely distanced, with wind instruments curtailed for much of the previous season.
The return to full size was made possible in part by a vaccination requirement for musicians. “[The orchestra’s vaccination rate] is pretty darn close to 100 percent because we’ve required it for musicians,” Speck said. Audience members will still be required to wear masks, and spacing will be maintained in the seating area. The orchestra is also scaling back to a single performance per concert weekend, rather than the two-shows-a-day format used the previous season. The season opener runs Saturday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee Sunday, Oct. 3, at 2:30 p.m.
Speck spoke enthusiastically about the program, which includes Adolphus Hailstork’s “Fanfare on Amazing Grace,” which he described as having reached “legendary” status, and Samuel Ward’s arrangement of “America the Beautiful,” which he called “glorious.” The centerpiece of the concert, however, is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a work with particular significance for Speck: it was also featured on the program for his very first concert as the Mobile Symphony’s music director, back in September 2000.
“We can use it as a benchmark, to see how the orchestra has progressed in a good two decades. Also, it feels like a new beginning after this past year, doesn’t it? So, in some ways, it makes sense to play what we played at the beginning,” Speck said. He also pushed back on conventional wisdom about the piece’s place in Tchaikovsky’s catalog, pointing to its wide emotional range. “It is furious in places, tender in the slow movement and unbelievably celebratory at the end. I might even argue it’s more exciting than the ‘1812 Overture’ at the end,” he said.
The timing of the performance carries its own story. Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony had originally been scheduled for the 2020-21 season but was postponed more than a dozen times as pandemic restrictions shifted throughout the year. Speck noted that the Mobile Symphony’s ability to keep performing at all sets it apart nationally. “When only 23 percent of symphony orchestras played any live music at all last season, I’m proud of Mobile’s resilience,” he said. Tickets and more information on the season opener are available by calling 251-432-2010 or visiting mobilesymphony.org.
Elsewhere in the local arts community, the University of South Alabama’s Glass Arts program is holding its second annual glass pumpkin patch fundraiser throughout October. Students and faculty in the program have hand-crafted more than 500 glass pumpkins in a range of shapes, colors and sizes for the sale, with proceeds going toward upgrading equipment in the university’s glass studio.
USA is the only public university in the state offering a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Glass. The program’s glass studio, a dedicated facility for glassblowing, casting and kiln-formed glass work, was established in 2010. This year’s pumpkin sales will be held Oct. 1 and Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Glass Arts Building on the USA campus, 399 University Blvd., accessible through Campus Entrance 7. A third sale date is set for Oct. 29-30 at Island Fire Gallery, 10505 Dauphin Island Pkwy. in Theodore. Those with questions can contact Rachel Wright at 251-490-6899 or by email at wright@southalabama.edu.
Downtown, artist Courtney Matthews is finalizing details for the latest installment of NEU DAWN, her recurring event blending painting, fashion and makeup artistry that has previously earned recognition for cultural innovation. This year’s showcase is set for Oct. 10, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the Alabama Contemporary Art Center, 301 Conti St., and will feature roughly 66 artists, models and other creatives.
Matthews asked participants to build their pieces around the Pantone Colors of the Year, Illuminating Yellow and Ultimate Gray, along with the sound of The Beatles’ “Revolution” and “Revolution 9.” The individual installations will be assembled together on the day of the event so visitors can see the full collaborative result. New participants joining this year’s event include Pete Anderson, Nadine Andrews, Stephanie Durkac, Nikki Foster, Chele Fury, Jennifer Grainger, Michelle Jones, Kat Kirk, Holly Krause and Jamie Smith.
Because the event includes a specially curated audio component accessed through a website on attendees’ own smartphones, visitors are asked to bring their own headphones. Masks will be required at the event, and organizers plan to manage distancing by staggering attendees’ entrance times. Admission is $5, with proceeds benefiting summer art programs.