The Jacksonville Symphony will perform "Brass, Organ, Winds & Percussion" on Sunday, Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. at the Jacoby Symphony Hall at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts in Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville Symphony’s Bryan Concert Organ can be compared to an elephant at a zoo: an enormous, majestic, 20-ton entity that everyone is excited to see. Over 100 years old with 6,215 pipes, this massive musical instrument will be the focus of "Brass, Organ, Winds & Percussion." A tradition that began in the 2017-2018 season, the Bryan Concert organ will be played by Miami Native Greg Zelek.
Zelek is the principal organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and curator of the Overture Concert Organ and Series. A recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship, Zelek received his bachelor's and master's degrees and an Artist Diploma, from the Juilliard School as a student of Paul Jacobs. He has won first prize in numerous competitions, as well as being a finalist and Audience Prize winner of the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition.
In 2012, Zelek played Strauss' Alpine Symphony with both the Juilliard Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, respectively. He was also the organist for multiple performances of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Faust, performed twice with the New World Symphony in 2014. He most recently performed Janáček's Glagolitic Mass with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
"Brass, Organ, Winds & Percussion" was created to feature the organ and the individual sections of the orchestra on a more intimate level. The program will feature selections from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Wagner’s Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin and a movement from Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Organ” Symphony. In an interesting twist, the Symphony percussion section will perform selections from a work titled Living Room Music. Unlike most compositions, this one does not specify instruments for the percussionists to play. The only direction from the composer, John Cage, is that they may only use objects that may be commonly found in a household, such as magazines, books or tables.
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.JaxSymphony.org or call the Ticket Office at (904) 354.5547.
