Arts & Entertainment

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Shares Stage with U.S. Army Chorus

ASO opens summer concert series at Alpharetta's Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra opened its summer concert season at  in Alpharetta on Monday night.

The ASO was joined by the U.S. Army Chorus again this year in the Celebrate America concert.

Also "starring" was Mother Nature, as a thunderstorm raged through most of the concert. Lightning strikes on the amphitheatre grounds had many of the concertgoers on the lawn scurrying under the amphitheater's roof, though quite a few stuck it out on the lawn under umbrellas or in rain ponchos.

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The concert opened with The Star Spangled Banner, played by the orchestra and sung by the U.S. Army Chorus. After a George M. Cohan Salute, the soldiers joined in again on America, The Beautiful. The most interesting pairing of the two probably was when the U.S. Army Chorus sang Randy Newman's You've Got a Friend in Me from the movie Toy Story.

Tunes from George Gerswhin, Leanard Bernstein, John Philip Sousa and John Williams were featured as well. The orchestra and chorus recognized the veterans in the audience with a medley of all the military branches' songs.

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Throughout the concert conductor Rob Fisher made note of the storm, from the colorful umbrellas out on the lawn to the rain he's sure Gershwin intended to include in An American in Paris, if he could have figured out how to score it. He had high hopes the storm would cooperate at the appropriate moments in Tchiakovsky's 1812 Overture, Opus 49, but that didn't quite work out.

Despite the rain even encroaching on the audience sitting under the amphitheater's roof, the concertgoers showed great appreciation for the work by the ASO and the U.S. Army Chorus. Most stayed until the final note was played and the house lights were turned back on.

The next ASO concert in Alpharetta will be on Friday, July 15 at 8:30 p.m., entitled Play It Again, Sam. The orchestra will play the score from Casablanca as the film is shown on the amphitheater's two large screens. Jere Flint will conduct and Turner Classic Movies' Ben Mankiewicz will host.


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