This concert will be conducted by Guest Conductor, Jeri Lynne Johnson.

This program is centered on how our environment can shape musical expression and Jean Sibelius’s Karelia Overture, begins our program with music that evokes a deep connection to land and people.

The CSO is proud to present the Ohio co-commission premiere of Meilina Tsui’s Floridian Symphony. The Canton Symphony Orchestra was selected by the League of American Orchestras’ Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program to participate in this national consortium—an initiative designed to elevate the voices of women and nonbinary composers. Tsui’s work is a vibrant reflection on the natural and emotional terrain of Florida, exploring how identity and place shape one another in a constantly evolving world, making it a timely and resonant addition to this season’s conversation.

The evening culminates in Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, a monumental tone poem that portrays a full-day mountaineering expedition through the Alps—complete with sunrise, summit, storm, and descent. The CSO’s performance will be accompanied by original photochoreography created in partnership with the Canton City Schools from community submissions, offering a visual narrative grounded in our own community’s relationship with nature, change, and resilience.