The Jacksonville Symphony is hosting two free concerts in October, dedicated to essential and frontline workers.
Each season, the Symphony presents two free community concerts as a token of appreciation to the city for its support. This season, Symphony spokeswoman Tori Fusinaz said, they wanted to especially give thanks to the workers who’ve been at the forefront of battling the pandemic and dealt with the brunt of its impact.
“That (work) we feel has been the real unifying connection to our community throughout the entire pandemic… From everyone, from police and fire to our military, all of the health care workers and educators,” she said.
The concerts will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 1-2, the same weekend as the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, at the Jacoby Symphony Hall in the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.
The program is a mix of classical and pop music — everything from Mozart’s Magic Flute to music from Saturday Night Fever made popular by the Bee Gees.
Masks will be required in the building at all times, and all Symphony staff, volunteers and musicians are required to be vaccinated. However, no vaccination requirement is in place for audience members.
Free tickets for the public are available as of Thursday, and nearly 700 seats were reserved for essential and frontline workers during a pre-sale before that.
Jacoby Symphony Hall has a capacity of 1,800 patrons, and while COVID-19 restrictions kept the hall at 33% capacity last season, there is no such restriction this year and audience members will not be distanced from one another.
“The Times-Union Center has extra cleaning protocols in place that were instituted last season, as well as air filtration,” Fusinaz said. “We were one of only four orchestras in the entire country who were able to continue performing throughout the season, and the Jacksonville Symphony is incredibly proud of that. Mandatory masking is a way that we can perform as many concerts as possible to as many patrons as possible.”
Reserve up to four tickets on the Symphony’s website or call the box office at 904-354-5547. Walk-ins can also pick-up remaining tickets the night of the performance.
Larger parties should call the box office about reservations, including frontline and essential workers who missed the pre-sale.
Raymon Troncoso can be reached at rtroncoso@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @RayTroncoso.
