Eric Greene

Perry So

Annie Rosen

Lisa Williamson

Chad Kranack

New Haven Symphony Orchestra

Music Director Perry So Opens his first season at Woolsey Hall with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, known best for its triumphant Ode to Joy.

Maestro So says, “We’re kicking off with Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, his great 9th symphony in its 200th anniversary year: a deep dive into the unifying joy that all of us find in music. This piece has taken generations through its harrowing journey in oppressive darkness, holding out false promises of an Eden that never materializes, until a voice pulls us back from the brink and shows us the way out of despair through community and through art. I love that this piece brings solace in bereavement at the same moment that it calls for a radical egalitarianism in art. It says to us: “since we are equally human in joy and sadness, together let’s choose the joy that reminds us how much we all share.”

Beethoven’s Ninth | Ode to Joy!