DOWNEY -“We’re playing your song!”  That’s the message Don Marshall, President of the Downey Symphony, wants to share with everybody.  The Symphony launches its new season at the Downey Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 21, and Marshall says it’s a show you won’t want to miss for many reasons.

“First, we’re presenting three knock-your-socks off pieces by the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák,” Marshall notes.  “A suite of toe-tapping “Slavonic Dances” will be followed by his aptly titled “Romance for Violin and Orchestra.”  

The concert concludes with his “Symphony no. 8,” a lyrical and powerfully moving piece.
There are other reasons this concert will be memorable, Marshall said. Carolyn Osborn, long-time concertmaster of the Orchestra, will perform the violin solo. 

“She’s a virtuoso musician known and loved by our audience,” Joyce Osborn, a Board member, observed, “including generations of kids for whom she’s performed as one of the founders of the Symphony’s Music in the Schools Program.”

Dvořák has a special place in the hearts of Americans, since he lived in the United States from 1892 to 1895. His music is often inspired by the rhythms and melodies of folk and popular music, and he urged American composers to draw on their own native sources and fuse them with the traditions of orchestral music to create their own distinctive American music.  

On top of that, partnering with the Downey Arts Coalition, there will be an exhibit of work by local artists in the Theatre lobby on the theme “Music: The Art of Sound.” 

Doors open at 6:30 pm so that everyone can enjoy the art and mingle and meet friends both before the concert and also while enjoying refreshments at intermission.

Music Director Sharon Lavery will give a talk on the evening’s music at 7:15 pm, and the concert begins at 8 pm.

Tickets are $35 or $30, depending on seating area; students are only $10 and parking is free and adjacent to the Theatre.  Tickets can be purchased online at downeysymphony.org, by phone at (562-861-8211 or in person (Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and beginning at 6:30 on the evening of the concert at the Downey Theatre Box Office.