The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has announced America@250, a series of six concerts aiming to reflect both historic and current American culture with a blend of classical, jazz, and contemporary voices.
Guest conductors and musicians will perform music by Duke Ellington, Copland, Barber, Bernstein, and a newly commissioned work by Valerie Coleman.
For more information and tickets, click here.
Here’s what to expect:
Ellington + Elgar’s Enigma Variations
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 8pm
Saturday, January 24, 2026, 8pm
David Danzmayr, conductor
Claire Huangci, piano
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
ELLINGTON: The Three Black Kings
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Concerto No. 2
ELGAR: Enigma Variations
Edward Elgar scored an instant hit with his 1899 Enigma Variations, and he’s been captivating new generations with it ever since. Enigma found its way into the films Dunkirk (2017) and The Matrix (1999), as well as the solemn funerals of Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II. This week, guest conductor David Danzmayr brings an eclectic mix of barn burners for the ace musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Pianist Claire Huangci performs Shostakovich’s snappy Piano Concerto No. 2. The concert opens with Duke Ellington’s swinging tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and closes with Elgar’s showstopping Enigma Variations.
America @ 250: Copland + Barber
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 8pm
Saturday, January 31, 2026, 8pm
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Randall Goosby, violin
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
LEONARD SLATKIN: Schubertiade: An Orchestral Fantasy
BARBER: Violin Concerto
COPLAND: Symphony No. 3
Guest conductor Leonard Slatkin brings his “special flare for Americana” (The New York Times) to serve up two great American works from the past century. The young violin virtuoso Randall Goosby plays Samuel Barber’s uber-romantic Violin Concerto. Then the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra pulls out all the stops for Aaron Copland’s gripping Third Symphony, a piece that guarantees the goosebumps with its finale, Fanfare for the Common Man. The concert opens with Mr. Slatkin’s own musical joy ride through the mind of 19th-century genius Franz Schubert.
America @ 250: Bernstein’s West Side Story
Thursday, February 12, 2026, 8pm
Saturday, February 14, 2026, 8pm
Teddy Abrams, conductor*
Martin Fröst, clarinet*
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
A. SHAW: Clarinet Concerto
VALERIE COLEMAN: Renaissance: Concerto for Orchestra
COPLAND: Clarinet Concerto
BERNSTEIN: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
2024 Grammy®-winning conductor Teddy Abrams joins the Orchestra for a feast of American mashups, including timeless hits from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and Aaron Copland’s jazz-inspired Clarinet Concerto. The ASO welcomes the “expressive and free-spirited” (Bachtrack) clarinetist Martin Fröst for the Clarinet Concerto by bandleader and jazz legend Artie Shaw. And Grammy®-winner Valerie Coleman puts the Orchestra through its paces with a nod to the Harlem Renaissance in a co-commissioned concerto.