Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony 2023-2024 Season
Symphony in the Key of Love

Season Opening Concert: Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 7:30 p.m., Magale Recital Hall. “The Force of Destiny!”

Our first concert will feature several NSU faculty. We will honor all season long the late Jim Bob Key, singer, arts patron, philanthropist and co-founder and past president (our second) of NNSS. We open the season with Henri Tomasi’s Annunciation from his Fanfare Liturgiques, followed by Verdi’s haunting and romantic overture to La Traviata, followed by “Un bel di” from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly sung by Dr. Marcy McKee. We invited one of most successful alums back to campus, Maestro Raúl Munguía, guest conductor , who will lead the orchestra with Mendelsohn’s Violin Concerto played by Dr. Andrej Kurti. Also on the program is Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” from his Enigma Variations, a Vivaldi concerto performed by Dr. Douglas Bakenhus, and a newly restored version of Jean-Baptiste Arban’s Carnival of Venice edited and performed by Dr. Masahito Kuroda on the euphonium.

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Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 7:30 p.m., Magale Recital Hall, “Halloween Pops Concert”

Come in costume if you wish to a frightening concert of your favorite spine-chilling music! The highlights will include a mustery guest artists and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” along with music from the Broadway shows Wicked and The Phantom of the Opera as well as a petrifying scene from a Mozart opera!

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Wednesday November 29, 2023, 7:00 p.m. CHRISTMAS GALA
Thursday, November 30, 2023, 7:00 p.m. CHRISTMAS GALA
Friday, December 1, 2023, 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. CHRISTMAS GALA
(A.A. Fredericks Auditorium)

The NSU School of Creative and Performing Arts’ annual Christmas GALA is a must-see. Take your pick for which show you would like to attend! A Christmas Gala performance is included in the season for Symphony Season Subscribers, so subscribers must reserve their seat early for these performances are in high demand and historically sell out.  Call for reservations: 318.357.4248. Individual Gala tickets are available for purchase here.

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Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Magale Recital Hall, “From a Romantic Comedy to a Big Surprise”

This concert will feature excerpts from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte performed by the NSU Opera Theater Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Robert Cardwell. Also on the bill are modern works by Valerie Coleman and Chickasaw Tribe classical composer, Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate. Haydn’s Sumphony No. 94 (“Suprise Symphony”) will also be performed.

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Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Magale Recital Hall, “Of Our New Day Begun”

Another living modern American composer will be featured on this program, Omar Thomas, and his Of Our New Day Begun. As we continue to honor the memory of Jim Bob Key, we will perform the music of Verdi and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture.

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Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 7:30 p.m., Magale Recital Hall, “NSU Concerto/Aria Winners Concert”

Our final concert of the season will feature NSU’s most talented student musicians. We will close our season honoring Jim Bob Key with one of his classical music favorites, Respighi’s magnificent Pines of Rome.