Sunday afternoon, April 19 at Proctors in Schenectady: the Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra brings “Poetic Echoes” home. Concert IV of the 2025–26 season. The 3:00 PM curtain marks the last main-stage performance of the year — and if the 2026–27 season announcement at curtain is any indication, it’s also a night worth sticking around for.
About the Program
The SSSO built this program around three very different kinds of beauty. Florence Price opens the conversation — and her presence on any major program still carries weight. Price was the first Black woman to have a work performed by a major American symphony, when the Chicago Symphony played her Symphony No. 1 in 1933. For decades her work was largely absent from concert halls. The renewed focus on her music has been one of classical music’s most meaningful corrections, and hearing her in a room like Proctors — where the SSSO has called home for years — feels right.
Ralph Vaughan Williams follows, his orchestral writing simultaneously rooted in English folk tradition and reaching for something harder to name. And then Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream closes the program — the incidental music written when Mendelssohn was 17, then expanded decades later, and still as alive as ever. The SSSO is joined by Saratoga Voices (chorus), soprano Brittany Palmer, and mezzo-soprano Ann Marie Adamick. This is the kind of lineup that makes a season closer feel earned.
About the SSSO
The Schenectady-Saratoga Symphony Orchestra has been part of the Capital Region’s musical life since 1935 — a professional and community ensemble under the direction of Artistic Director Glen Cortese that presents four main concerts per season at Proctors and throughout the Capital District. This is their home stage. They know how to fill it.
Venue Info
Proctors Theatre in downtown Schenectady has been anchoring the city’s arts scene since 1926. The restored atmospheric-style theater seats over 2,600 and has the kind of scale that makes a full orchestra feel genuinely grand without losing intimacy. Parking is plentiful on and around State Street, and the theater is steps from the Erie Boulevard dining corridor if you’re making a night of it.
Pre-Show Talk & Under-18 Policy
Conductor Glen Cortese leads a pre-show talk at 2:00 PM — a full hour before the 3:00 PM downbeat. Knowing what you’re about to hear, and why, changes the experience. The SSSO also offers free admission for patrons under 18 with a ticketed adult. It’s one of the better family-friendly offers in the Capital Region’s classical calendar.
Season Announcement
The 2026–27 SSSO season lineup is set to be announced at the conclusion of the concert. If you’ve been following the orchestra this year and want to be in the room when next season gets unveiled, this is your chance.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale now through the Proctors Collaborative box office. Get tickets for SSSO: Poetic Echoes at Proctors →
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