Glens Falls Symphony presents “Sound Canvases”
NEWS CONTACT:
Jennifer Brink, Executive Director
Phone: (518) 793-1348
E-mail: exdir@gfso.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 9, 2025
Glens Falls Symphony presents “Sound Canvases”
This performance will feature Modest Mussorgsky’s beloved “Pictures at an Exhibition”, arranged from the original piano for orchestra by composer Maurice Ravel. Ravel's orchestral imagination dynamically expands the colorful vignettes of each movement- sound images based on artworks (the “Pictures” of the title) of Mussorgsky’s artist friend.
Also on the program, an innovative choice of music, ensured by great art, the Glens Falls Symphony presents Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Gunther Schuller’s “Seven Studies of Themes of Paul Klee”, one of his most popular pieces that fuses jazz and classical music, performed with the projection of Paul Klee’s artworks.
NOTE: Due to construction at Glens Falls High School, this concert has been relocated to the South Glens Falls High School Auditorium.
“Sound Canvases” Concert and Related Events:
· Sunday, November 9, at 3 pm, Pre-Concert Talk: Music Director Charles Peltz discusses the concert, the music, and the guest artists in a free talk at 3 pm, in the South Glens Falls Auditorium, 42 Merritt Road, South Glens Falls, NY 12803.
· Sunday, November 9 at 4 pm: “Sound Canvases,” South Glens Falls High School Auditorium. TICKETS: Adult: $45/$39/$29. Student Ticket: $12. Location: 42 Merritt Road, South Glens Falls, NY 12803. The back entrance of the school faces the Football Field.
Tickets:
2025-26 Season Ticket 4- Packs plus a Bonus concert, Sunday, November 23, 2025 “Brilliant Baroque!” Tier 1-$160.00 Tier 2- $140.00 Tier 3 $110.00. 4-Pack Family Season Ticket for a family of four with two adults and two youth under age 18: $240.00. Concert dates: 11.9.2025, 12.7.2025, 3.15.2026 and 5.3.2026 + 11.23.25.
“Sound Canvases” tickets: $45/$39/$29.
Visit www.theglensfallssymphony.org or call (518) 793-1348 to purchase tickets.
For more information, contact Jennifer Brink at (518) 793-1348 or exdir@gfso.org
www.theglensfallssymphony.org
Glens Falls Symphony Office (518) 793-1348
Located upstairs in the LARAC Gallery building: 7 Lapham Place in Glens Falls
Office hours: Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
About Mr. Schuller,
American composer Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) took the Swiss artist Paul Klee (1879-1940) as his inspirational source for his 1959 orchestral work 7 Studies on Themes of Paul Klee. The seven works he chose were created between 1912 and 1933 and capture a wide range of Klee’s artistic output in painting and drawing. The work was one of Schuller’s most popular pieces and was an example of Schuller’s ‘Third Stream’ movement pieces that fused jazz and classical music, as well as showcasing his interest in the arts.
Gunther Schuller was a brilliant polymath: a virtuoso horn player, a visionary administrator, a celebrated conductor, an author, an influential teacher, and a gifted, self-taught composer. His career began as a choirboy at St. Thomas Church Choir School in New York, where he also began lessons on the French horn. By 1943, he was appointed principal horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the age of eighteen. He then joined the horn section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he remained until 1959. Schuller taught composition at the Manhattan School and at Yale University before joining the New England Conservatory; he was president of that institution from 1967 to 1977.
Schuller taught composition at the Berkshire Music Center from 1963 to 1984. Much honored for his music as well as for his championship of American composers, Schuller earned a Grammy in 1974 for a recording of Scott Joplin’s music. He received a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award in 1991, and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1994. It was poignant that he passed away on Father’s Day 2015. The vastness of his contributions to American classical and jazz music in all its various forms is—without exaggeration—staggering. It is a legacy that the United States and indeed the world will continue to celebrate, study, reflect upon, and admire for generations.
About Glens Falls Symphony:
The Glens Falls Symphony, begun as a community amateur orchestra in 1977, now moves into its fifth decade of music-making as a professional orchestra. Since Maestro Charles Peltz arrived in 2000, the fully professional Glens Falls Symphony has performed a dynamic repertoire, regularly including musical premieres and world-renowned guest artists.
The orchestra continues to expand its musical and educational offerings to include Children’s Concerts for up to 3,000 students in the 7-county region in Warren and Washington counties, plus in the southeastern Adirondacks. The orchestra served over 14,000 people in 2025, and the 41st season welcomed some of the largest concert audiences in its history. The musicians offer master classes, as well as family concerts, summer pops programs, and more. Cited as “one of the great orchestras of our country” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner, the orchestra comprises professional musicians who come from all over the Northeast and beyond to perform.
Click here to purchase tickets to “Sound Canvases”