LOGAN – The American Festival Chorus & Orchestra has announced the events scheduled in its upcoming 2024-25 season.
Marking its 17th year, the AFCO season will lead off on Saturday, Oct. 19 with a Sesquicentennial Celebration of the Music of Gustav Holst.
Although best known for his composition “The Planets,” Holst authored a large number of other musical works. Combining a range of influences, his music includes spiritual aspects of Hinduism, English folk tunes and the works of classical composers Edvard Grieg, Richard Wagner and his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams.
The chorus and orchestra will observe Veterans Day (Wednesday, Nov. 11) with a Memorial Concert honoring our fallen heroes.
In December, the AFCO will present multiple performances of Christmas from the Daines Concert Hall, with guest soloists Mat and Savanna Shaw.
Mathew Shaw and daughter Savanna are a Utah musical duo who began releasing music videos via social media in March of 2020. Many of those videos have since gone viral and they have been interviewed on “Good Morning America,” “the Kelly Clarkson Show” and on NHK Television in Japan.
Performances of the AFCO Christmas concert are slated for Thursday, Dec. 12; Friday, Dec. 13; and, Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. A matinee performance of the holiday concert is set for Saturday, Dec. 14 at 2 p.m.
After the dawn of the New Year, the chorus and orchestra will present Encore! The Music of Broadway and Hollywood with guest artist Casey Elliot on Saturday, Feb. 8.
A resident of Layton, Elliot best known throughout Utah as a member of the vocal group Gentri. In addition to his vocal talents, Elliot is also a gifted actor, having performed on stage in Elton John’s Aida, Les Misérables and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and in several Latter-day Saint feature films.
Finally, the AFCO will join the Cache Children’s Choir in presenting Look at the World: The Choral Music of John Rutter on Saturday, April 26.
Sir John Milford Rutter is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music. He served as director of music at Clare College from 1975 to 1979, where he led its choir to international prominence. In 1981, Rutter founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral music.
Season tickets for the AFCO’s 2024-25 season will go on sale on Monday, Aug. 19 at the Box Office in the Chase Fine Arts Center (Room L101) on the campus of Utah State University and at the USU Ticket Office in the Spectrum.
Single event tickets will go on sale on Monday, Sept. 9.
AFCO officials say that season ticket subscribers will save 10 percent over purchasing tickets separately.
All American Festival Chorus & Orchestra performances will be presented in the Daines Concert Hall in the Chase Fine Arts Center on the campus of USU.