The Greater Bridgeport Symphony is performing a unique concert on Friday in Danbury. For the first time in many years, the symphony will perform a full masterworks concert outside its own Bridgeport auditorium.
The idea for this unusual performance was conceived by a patron, in honor of her husband's 90th birthday.
A few years ago, she approached the Greater Bridgeport Symphony to ask if they’d play a concert for her husband, a great admirer of classical music, on the occasion of his milestone birthday. The honoree’s favorite work is “Organ Symphony.''
Symphony executive director Mark Halstead started the difficult search to find the right location.
“It ended up being in Danbury because it's closer to where the benefactors' family and friends live,” Halstead said. “We spent two years looking for a church that we could use and take pews out of and fit the entire 60-piece orchestra.”
He identified St. Peter Catholic Church. The symphony will perform the concert — "Surprise, Surprise!" — there on Friday night.
The search for the right location was a challenge, partly because they had to find a church where the organ was in the front.
“That is a really important factor,” Halstead said. “So that all the audience could face the entire orchestra and not have the organist in the loft.”
Once the location was set, the program was developed over time, largely by the benefactor because she knew what her husband's favorite music would be. Among the songs that will be performed: Saint-Saëns’ “Organ Symphony,” Stravinsky’s “Circus Polka” and Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.”
The benefactor is sponsoring the performance and inviting the public to attend free of charge. Halstead hopes this will allow more people an opportunity to experience the music. It’s a chance for a new audience to relate to and perhaps discover an appreciation of classical music, he said.
“The big moment for a lot of people coming to the symphony for the first time is latching on to a little tune that was part of the score of a movie, or something they heard in a TV commercial or wherever,” Halstead said. “And they say, ‘I know that!’ And they realize this music might be 200 or 300 years old but it's been around and lasted for so long because it is great!”
If you go
“Surprise, Surprise!” featuring the Greater Bridgeport Symphony
St. Peter Catholic Church, 104 Main St., Danbury
May 5, 7:30 p.m.
Free, but advanced registration is required at the Greater Bridgeport Symphony website.
