 The Jacksonville Symphony is back. It kicks off its 2023-24 season tonight with a community concert here with a sneak peek, is none other than Courtney Lewis, musical director of the Jacksonville Symphony. Courtney, this is the first time I've met you. It's a great pleasure. It's a great pleasure for me because I see your face. It's in the airport. I'm like, that's suave, Devonair man, leads my symphony. It's amazing. You've got to take a selfie with the picture. We have to do it. We have to do it. So first off, how far in advance do you plan these concerts? We tend to plan a year and a half to two years ahead of everything. Now this weekend, we have the community concerts tonight and tomorrow night, which is one of my favorite times of the year because we invite the whole community for free into Jacoby Symphony Hall. But unfortunately for your listeners, those concerts are completely sold out tomorrow. So I'm very excited about two weekends from now, September 29th and 30th, when we open the classical season. That's really when we start with our serious programming. But I say serious, still lots of things for everybody to hear and we're particularly excited about that weekend because alongside favorites by Beethoven and Schumann, we're giving the world premiere of a brand new organ concerto by the composer Low Lieberman. Being performed by Grammy-winning organist Paul Jacobs, the first ever organist to win a Grammy. People might not know, but in Jacoby Symphony Hall, we have a beast of an organ. An absolutely incredible instrument and there isn't a whole lot of music written for organ and orchestra. So we've made it one of our big priorities to commission as many composers as possible to write for this great instrument. So this is a really exciting time for people who haven't maybe heard the Jacksonville Symphony before to come and hear the orchestra and experience this tremendous instrument in the organ as well. If you haven't been to the symphony, you are missing out. It is a jewel in this community. Just going into the Jacoby Halls, it gives me chills. It's a very special building. It's so special and the musicians there, I'm such a symphony nut. I'm hitting you up for free tickets. I'm joking. I support the things that I love. You should support WJCT during this pledge fund drive, but yeah, no, I support it. I love the symphony. So what else do you have coming up besides the show in September? We have lots of music. If you check on our website, you can see music. We play music for films. We play kids' concerts, education concerts, symphony in 60 when we perform rush hour concerts on Thursday nights when you can come after work. Something that we're starting new this year is because we play so much new music now, people tend to think of classical music as being old. I'm very keen on classical music also being the music of today and commissioning today's composers, but sometimes people find it a little bit difficult to hear the music from today. So one of the things that we're going to do for the first time in a couple of weeks on September 27th is have a new music living composer's seminar. When me and a couple of the staff conductors, Aunt Lowe Lieberman, the composer of this organ concerto, are going to get together at Jacoby Symphony Hall and just play people some new music. Talk about the different styles and idioms that are different in new music from older classical music and try to remove some of the barriers from people hearing the music of today. Yeah. So I encourage you, that's a free event September 27th at 6.30, led by me and a couple of the staff conductors. I'd love to hear you there to discuss the music of today and to open your ears to the new. I'm going to put you on the spot. As far as new composers and the music of today, what's your favorite? Thomas Adder's English composer. I'm totally right in this down. A very good friend of mine and whose opera The Exterminating Angel I'm conducting at the Paris Opera in April. Wow. Adder's A-D-E-S. Yes. He's the top of my list. And so for people who are not, I will admit to you that I love classical music, but I don't like, I don't know who I'm listening to. I mean, obviously I know Beethoven, I know Bach. My personal favorite is Ravel. Oh, I love Ravel. Ravel is so good. He's my dude. But when I'm listening to like a station or whatever, like I'm not checking like, you know, who are the greats and all of that, I'm just enjoying it. What would you say is like a good entry way into classical music? Coming to a concert. Yeah. Of course. So look, people have this notion about what classical music is. I've made it my mission here in Jacksonville to kind of try and change that. The Jacksonville Symphony is an organization that's open to absolutely everybody. You can come to a concert knowing nothing and just enjoy the experience. The best way to experience classical music is live. There's nothing like being in the room with a group of 80 to 100 musicians playing music. You feel it. You experience the audience reacting together. And you also then have a memory of the piece that's specific to you and your life. That's the way to do it. So check out our website, find a date that works for you, and please dismiss those notions you have about it being symphony for your grandparents or for rich people or only for white people. None of these things are true. We want to welcome everybody to hear this great orchestra that we have right in our hometown. I remember the first time I heard the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. This is many, many, many, many, many, many moons ago. And I don't remember the music that was being played. But I came into Jacoby Hall, I sat in the chair, and I remember watching the percussion session begin and feeling like the wave of sound coming at me. And it was so amazing that I closed my eyes and the music just kept hitting me to the point where it moved me to tears. But then I would open my eyes and was like, you got to see this. And I was getting wrapped up in like just going with it, but watching all of these musicians and watching the conductor, like I love watching conductors. I mean, they do, they obviously steal my tricks right on. So it's just such an amazing experience. But I think people just, you know, they tend to have this idea that it's, you know, it's for old folks, it's for, you know, this, it's for that. But really, it's for you because when I went to it, I walked out thinking that this is my symphony. Yeah. This is mine. You know, I don't think necessarily everybody realizes how good the orchestra is here. You know, we have a really world-class symphony here and it's only got better and better over the last couple of years. So it's really one of the highlights of things to do in Jacksonville. And if you haven't been, like I said, just step out of your comfort zone and you'll be really surprised. Excellent. Courtney Lewis, music director of the Jacksonville Symphony. I am such a fanboy. I'm taking a picture with this guy right now.