St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s Day celebration

The 2026 St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s New Year’s Day celebration concert in St Albans Cathedral presents a rich and varied feast of works by North American (USA) composers. Starting at 7:00 p.m. we will play –
Aaron Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Amy Beach Bal Masqué (1893)
Erich Korngold Straussiana (1953)
Richard Rodgers Slaughter on Tenth Avenue
John Sousa The Stars and Stripes Forever
Leonard Bernstein Candide - overture
Joan Tower Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (No.1)
George Gershwin Girl Crazy - overture
Leonard Bernstein West Side Story: Symphonic Dances

Aaron Copland’s iconic fanfare for brass and percussion opens the concert. Joan Tower’s piece was inspired by the Copland, and is ‘No.1’ as it is the first of six ‘parts’ that can form one piece or be played separately.

Richard Rodgers is best known for his Broadway Musicals partnership with Oscar Hammerstein. (Two overtures from those musicals featured in our 2025 New Year’s Day concert.) Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is a ballet within Rodgers and Hart's 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes.

John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever is the National March of the United States of America. (Another of his marches is familiar to many Brits of a certain age.)

Girl Crazy is a 1930 musical written by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Co-leads Ginger Rogers and Ethel Merman made their stage debuts in the first production, and Rogers became an overnight star.

Amy Beach’s Bal Masqué and Erich Korngold’s Straussiana bring the traditional New Year’s Day waltz sounds to the evening.

Leonard Bernstein features twice, first with the overture to his 1956 musical Candide, then in the major piece, the West Side Story: Symphonic Dances, an orchestral suite in nine movements adapted from parts of the musical that is a re-telling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Tickets are on sale now, priced at £28, £22, £16, £10, £1 (accompanied child). Online: click ‘book now’ on https://www.stalbanscathedral.org/Event/st-albans-symphony-orchestra-new-years-day-celebration-concert In person: Visit the Box Office desk in the Cathedral Welcome Centre. Telephone: 01727 890290.

For more information visit https://saso.org.uk/events/new-years-day-celebration-concert/