Big Spring Symphony season opener “A Breath of Fresh Air”

The Big Spring Symphony Orchestra will be bringing a Breath of Fresh Air to Big Spring when it presents its first concert of the fall season this month.

The concert is slated for Sept. 25, and will be held in the Big Spring High School auditorium instead of the Municipal Auditorium – the orchestra’s usual home – because of scheduling conflicts, said Conductor Dr. Keith Graumann.

“It’s only because the auditorium staff wasn’t able to be there on that date,” Graumann said. “We’ll be back in the Municipal Concert for the November concert.”

Graumann said the High School auditorium is acoustically good, although the stage is slightly smaller than that at the Municipal Auditorium.

“We’ll get everybody on there,” he said.

Graumann said he picked the theme

“A Breath of Fresh Air” for the Symphony Orchestra’s 40th

season.

“I chose

‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ because COVID is letting people out of the house again and in general, people are enjoying a little more freedom,” he said. “So I thought I would try to reflect that a little in my choice of literature for the concert.”

The concert’s first selection will transport the audience to a national park in northern Arizona.

“The first one is by Ferde Grofé, he lived mostly in the 20th Century,” Graumann said. “It’s called The Grand Canyon Suite. He sort of tells the story in five movements in this piece. Sunrise, The Painted Desert, On the Trail, Sunset and then Cloudburst. All of these movements is an attempt to try to make the listener imaginatively see the Grand Canyon. It’s quite descriptive, musically. The most famous, the most well-known part of the piece is On the Trail.