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The KPAC Blog features classical music news, reviews, and analysis from South Texas and around the world.

Mid-Texas Symphony Performs Season Finale Sunday, Looks Forward To 'Normal' Fall

Liz Garza Williams
Akiko Fujimoto is the Music Director of the Mid-Texas Symphony, who perform regularly in New Braunfels and Seguin.

The Mid-Texas Symphony’s Music Director, Akiko Fujimoto, has one more concert with the ensemble this weekend, but she is already looking forward to the fall.

“We hope that [it] will be a great kind of reunion after a really tough year of missing each other and sort of being fragmented,” Fujimoto said by phone recently, referring to what will hopefully be a “normal” schedule of full-sized orchestra concerts with the Mid-Texas Symphony, beginning in September. “We were never able to do anything with our normal 70-person orchestra just because of social distancing on stage, safety issues,” she explained.

After limiting itself to small chamber showcases and intimate weekly video newsletters featuring individual musicians last fall, the Mid-Texas Symphony returned to live performance in a limited fashion this spring; their short season-ending concert takes placethis Sunday in Seguin at 4:00 p.m., featuring violinist Laura Scalzo playing a concerto by J.S. Bach, and Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony, which Fujimoto calls “a miraculous piece.”

Referring to the pandemic videos, Fujimoto said, “It was really a great way to connect with our patrons after so many cancelations, but of course, nothing beats live music.”

This Sunday’s program is nevertheless sold out for in person seating, but livestream tickets are still available that will let patrons see and hear the program, as well as support the orchestra.

With the vaccine rollout, fall’s programs promise to be more fulfilling for everyone, and they’ll include some more diverse programming as well, including woman composers Jessie Montgomery (“Strum”) and Caroline Shaw (“Entr’Acte). Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s music will be performed, as well as a beautiful piece by African-American composer William Grant Still called “Mother and Child.” Warhorses like Ottorino Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” will also be a part of the 2021/22 season.

Fujimoto praised the organization’s Executive Director, Jason Irle, for holding everything together during this tough year.

“[He] worked tirelessly behind the scenes… it was a big team effort, and Mid-Texas Symphony has this fighting spirit that really amazes me… I just can’t wait for everyone to get back together,” Fujimoto said.