The Vermont Symphony Orchestra has released its spring schedule that boasts several live performances starting in March that includes a first-of-its-kind light and visual event, an internationally renowned pianist from the United Kingdom, and the return of the VSO Chorus.

The VSO Jukebox Quartet will open the spring season, with performances in Waitsfield, Burlington, St. Johnsbury, and Bennington. The quartet will be violinist Brooke Quiggins, cellist John Dunlop and percussionists D. Thomas Toner and Nicola Cannizzaro, and will be joined by different groups of young string players in each community.

The VSO then heads to The Flynn for the Classical Series, conducted by Tania Miller, who has served as the Music Director of Canada’s Victoria Symphony for 14 years. The show will feature UK pianist Stephen Hough, who will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Hough has performed around the globe including with the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the Orchestre Nationale de France, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Miller, who is looking forward to the concert, encourages the community to attend the performance. “Musicians and concert-goers alike have missed the experience of being inside music and sharing a music performance where the music becomes a living, evolving, spontaneous and responsive force in that one special moment. We are all inside the sound and feeling of music, the ebbs and flows, hushes and emotional climaxes and it takes us somewhere. Music connects us to each other, to the composers and the peoples of the countries where the music was written. We understand each other more and connect to the spirit of being a human together and in the community together.”

Following the classical series, the VSO will be hosting “Visualizer Orchestra” concerts in Essex Junction and Rutland on April 29 and 30. These performances boast dynamic lights and visuals show that will create visual stories to accompany the orchestral music. The 40-piece orchestra will include music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mendelssohn, Samuel Barber, Su Lian Tan, and more.

Conductor Antoine Clark shared his excitement for the fusion of a show for both auditory and visual senses, commenting, “I am excited about these performances because I enjoy creating new and innovative experiences within classical music. As a conductor, I have combined music with poetry, dance, and sculpture. I am delighted that this Visualizer Orchestra program will feature well-known pieces in classical music and exciting works that the audience has never heard. The diverse program features compositions by women and people of color, which I believe is essential for hearing different perspectives.”

Lastly, the VSO Chorus will perform concerts on May 20 and 21 in Burlington and Rutland. The shows are centered around John Rutter’s three-movement piece Gloria. The VSO Chorus will be conducted by widely acclaimed choral director José Daniel Flores-Caraballo and will feature brass and percussion ensemble music, as well as choral and organ, works by Bach, Moses Hogan, Robert Harris, and more.

To learn more about the events and to find tickets, click here.