This is just new. Keir will narrate Stories From The Sea to include Walt Whitman’s Poems and Songs. Read on.

GBS opens 69th season with new conductor; actor Keir Dullea to narrate

Phyllis A.S. Boros
Published 5:16 pm, Tuesday, September 9, 2014

New, new, new — and lots of tradition, too.

That’s the philosophy at the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, which opens its 69th season at the Klein Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, Sept. 13 — a month earlier than usual.

Its new music director/conductor Eric Jacobsen, a cellist, will kick off his concert-week public appearances on Thursday, Sept. 11, at the Pequot Library, in Fairfield, with noted area pianist Alan Murchie. The event is part of the library’s annual concert series.

Also new: The season has been expanded from five to six concerts (with Jacobsen conducting five of them). Music lovers can purchase five-concert or six-concert subscriptions (with the six-concert package including “A Folk Christmas” on Saturday, Dec. 6).

Special discounts are being offered for 20-somethings to foster the season as a date-night destination for younger audiences. It’s a “$30 Under 30” six-concert subscription for $180, featuring prime seating and full subscriber benefits.

Opening night’s “Stories from the Sea” will include “Walt Whitman, Poems and Songs,” with narration provided by stage and screen actor Keir Dullea, a Connecticut resident who has gained a large local following for his many contributions to the community arts scene. He starred in the iconic 1968 space movie, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

The songs are all original, written by guitarist Kyle Sanna, flutist Alex Sopp, Jacobsen and his brother Colin, a renowned violinist. The four musicians make up Brooklyn Rider, a successful quartet that performs around the world, and are all members of the New York-based Knights Orchestra.

The opening-night program also will include Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances.

A music director’s first season is always a special one, said Jacobsen, who celebrated his 32nd birthday in July.

When putting the season together, Jacobsen said he planned it to be “alive with discovery and excitement, full of chance and exploration.” And the GBS also “will have the repertoire that we all know and love to re-examine,” he added.

Subscribers receive a 20 percent discount compared with individual tickets. As a bonus, subscribers will receive a free pair of tickets to any concert so that they may introduce friends or relatives to the GBS.

The six-concert season packages range from $139.20 to $283.20; five-concert packages (without the holiday event) range from $116 to $236.

pasboros@ctpost.com; Twitter: PhyllisASBoros

The Klein Memorial Auditorium, 910 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport. Saturday, Sept. 13, 8 p.m. $59-$29. Free parking. 203-576-0263, www.gbs.org.

Pequot Library, 720 Pequot Ave. in Fairfield’s Southport section. Thursday, Sept. 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m. $30 door, $25 advance. 203-259-0346; www.pequotlibrary.org.

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