The Pensacola Symphony Orchestra closes its 100th anniversary season on April 25 at Saenger Theatre with Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, the "New World" Symphony, alongside special guests marking the centennial. Doors at 7 p.m. Tickets from $25.
A hundred years is a long time for any cultural institution. The PSO was founded in 1926, made it through the Depression, through World War II, through the base closures and expansions that reshaped the community's economy multiple times. The orchestra has been a fixture through all of it, playing in spaces that have come and gone, building audiences that have turned over across generations.
The Dvořák Ninth is among the most frequently performed works in the orchestral canon, frequently performed in concert halls and familiar to broad audiences, the second movement "largo" is one of those works people know without knowing they know it. It rewards hearing live in a way that recordings don't fully capture. The brass entrances in the finale, at full orchestral volume in an acoustic space, are something else.
The dress rehearsal the afternoon of April 25, a separate ticketed event at $10, is a genuine option if you want to hear the program without the formal evening setup. The PSO has offered open dress rehearsals for years as a community access initiative and they draw regulars who prefer the more informal atmosphere. Tickets at pensacolasymphony.com. Saenger Theatre is at 118 S. Palafox Street.