2024-25 Season Tickets
We are excited to announce our 2024-2025 Concert Season with Maestro Alexander Platt!
October 19, 2024: “Romeo and Juliet” with Lucille Chung on Piano
November 16, 2024: “Rhapsody in Blue” with Michelle Cann and an Aaron Copland Journey
December 21, 2024: “Holiday Romance” with a members of Ballet La Crosse
March 1, 2025: “Nordic Heroes” with Rising Stars and the La Crosse Youth Symphony Orchestra
March 29, 2025: “Spring Jazz” with Brubeck, Bernstein, and the Beatles!
May 3, 2025: "Midnight in Paris” with Two "Conductor Wannabes" winners
For more information
Contact the LSO office at (608) 783-2121
October 19, 2024
"Romeo and Juliet"
We're off to Paris, and the Romantic Age, for our debut concert of the season at the Viterbo Fine Arts Center. Following the LSO's knockout performance of the Hector Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, we celebrate his next great work from the 1830s, his passionate rendering of Shakespeare's timeless tale. Back from her cancelled engagement due to COVID, American pianist Lucille Chung finally makes her debut with our Symphony in the famously intense concerto from the man most famous for The Carnival of the Animals. The evening concludes with another knockout, the legendary Overture to Richard Wagner's early opera RIENZI, which took Paris by storm in 1869.
Hector Berlioz: Three Pieces from Romeo et Juliette, Op.17; Royal Hunt and Storm, from Les Troyens
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No.2 in G Minor with Lucille Chung, piano
Wagner: Rienzi Overture
November 16, 2024
"Rhapsody in Blue"
Come join us as we celebrate the centenary of the first performance of a true American classic, a piano concerto that changed the world: George Gershwin's amazing RHAPSODY IN BLUE! Michelle Cann will bring her brilliance and charm on a welcome return visit to La Crosse, in which she'll also perform the La Crosse premiere of the Piano Concerto of the unjustly-neglected composer Florence Price, a central figure in the Black Chicago Renaissance of the 1930s and 40s. Composed within a decade of each other, these two one-movement masterpieces make a perfect American pair. And to end the evening -- and back by popular demand -- our Maestro presents yet another beautiful Aaron Copland Symphony No. 3. culminating in Copland's magnificent full-orchestra rendering of his immortal "Fanfare for the Common Man" -- an evening not to be missed!
A celebration of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, on the centenary of its world premiere, and of the pioneering Black American composer, Florence Price.
Bob Lowden: Armed Forces Salute
Florence Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement (1934)
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1924) with Michelle Cann, piano
Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3 showcasing "Fanfare for the Common Man" theme
December 21, 2024
"Holiday Romance"
Come home for the Holidays with the LSO, as our wonderful Symphony is united with another cherished arts organization in our community! In our La Crosse Symphony tradition, the Orchestra will be joined by the full corps de ballet from Misty Lown's Ballet La Crosse, enjoy the splendor of a fully-choreographed performance of the greatest moments from Tchaikovsky's THE NUTCRACKER! A rare event and the ultimate Holiday program!
Hershy Kay: Deck the Halls – (A Merrie Fugue)
Edvard Grieg: Three pieces from the PEER GYNT Suite Morning Mood, Anitra’s Dance, and In the Hall of the Mountain King
Chip Davis / Mannheim Steamroller: Stille Nacht
Lucas Richman: Hanukkah Festival Overture
Hugo Alfvén: Swedish Rhapsody No. 1, Op. 19: "Midsommarvaka"
Chip Davis / Mannheim Steamroller: Deck the Halls
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite; Pas de Deux and Waltz of the Snowflakes from Act I with members of Ballet La Crosse
Finnegan: A Holiday Sing-Along
March 1, 2025
"Nordic Heroes"
Two brilliant young "Rising Stars" Competition winners, in movements from famous solo concertos; and a brilliant and dramatic First Symphony - the thrilling, late-romantic breakout symphony of Denmark’s greatest composer. The perfect "on-ramp" to introduce our magnificent Orchestra to family and friends!
Jean Sibelius: the KARELIA Suite
Rising Stars Winner I
Rising Stars Winner II
Carl Nielsen: Symphony No.1 in G Minor, Op.7
March 29, 2025
"Spring Jazz"
Leonard Bernstein, Dave Brubeck, and The Beatles -- geniuses of 20th-century popular music, who truly bridged the gap between Jazz, Classical, and Pop. Come celebrate their artistry with Dave's son, trombonist and composer Chris Brubeck -- a great classical/jazz musician in his own right -- as he makes his LSO debut in his own Concerto, along with suave symphonic renderings of his father's greatest hits. We then feature a rare and classy symphonic tribute to The Beatles by that a legend of American pop music, the elegant Henry Mancini. We'll wrap things up with - fresh off the controversial Bradley Cooper film Maestro - the LSO's performance of Bernstein's magnificent "Symphonic Dances" and “Mambo” from his immortal "popular opera,” WEST SIDE STORY, which will move and amaze you.
Chris Brubeck, after Dave Brubeck: TIME OUT Suite
Chris Brubeck: Trombone Concerto with Chris Brubeck, soloist
Dave Brubeck: Rondo a la Turk
arr. Henry Mancini: A Portrait of The Beatles
Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
May 3, 2025
"Midnight in Paris"
What better way to wrap up our mainstage season than with a visit back to Paris in springtime, courtesy of a 150th birthday celebration of Maurice Ravel! Ravel's Bolero was an LSO performance many folks still talk about, when we performed all of that composer's "Spanish" works for orchestra in one night. And now, our Maestro has put together another gorgeous symphonic journey, here celebrating Ravel's love of the Viennese waltz. Culminating in La Valse -- his blockbuster homage to the ultimate midnight ball -- the LSO will be sure to once again "raise the roof" with another thrilling performance! Rachel Barton Pine -- one of the world's great violinists, and Chicago's own -- makes a welcome return to the LSO in Brahms' magnificent and beloved Concerto. In another great La Crosse tradition, we start with our two winning Conductor Wannabes, trying out their podium skills!
Two "Conductor Wannabe" Winners
Mendelssohn: Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61
Schubert: March Militaire for Orchestra
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major with Rachel Barton Pine, violin
Maurice Ravel (in celebration of the centenary of his birth): "The Dance Symphony"
- Menuet Antique
- Valses nobles et sentimentales
- La Valse
