In the news

March 2-8, 2026

 Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO) releases concert season lineup

 

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (ASO) on Tuesday unveiled its 2026-2027 concert season, a varied, ambitious lineup bookended by two powerful artistic statements that celebrate community in distinct and meaningful ways.

 

The Stella Boyle Smith Masterworks season will open Oct. 3 and 4, 2026, with a major America 250 celebration honoring Arkansas-born composer Florence Price alongside George Gershwin and Aaron Copland. It will close May 1 and 2, 2027, with a landmark collaboration with Ballet Arkansas for Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”

 

Together, those performances frame a season that embodies the ASO’s mission to connect, enrich, inspire and advance Arkansas through the power of music. This 61st season also highlights Arkansas heritage, elevates local artistic talent and strengthens partnerships across the state’s cultural community.

 

Celebrating America 250

 

The Masterworks season opens with what ASO leaders expect to be among the most significant artistic events in Arkansas’ America 250 commemorations.

 

The program features Florence Price’s “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America,” Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Copland’s “Symphony No. 3,” which incorporates the iconic “Fanfare for the Common Man.”

 

Born in 1887 in Little Rock and raised in the Dunbar neighborhood, Price became the first African American woman to have a work performed by a major American orchestra. Composed in 1932, “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America” is a three-movement work depicting the arrival of enslaved Africans, their endurance through faith and the blending of African heritage with American identity. Long overlooked after her death in 1953, the work was rediscovered in 2009 and has since gained national recognition, including its inclusion on a New York Youth Symphony album that won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance.

 

ASO will become the first professional American orchestra to record the work for later release.

 

The full Masterworks schedule:

 

• Opening Night: Oct. 3 and 4, 2026

 

• Florence Price: “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America”

 

• George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, with Stewart Goodyear, piano

 

• Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3

 

 MW II: “Beethoven & Blue Jeans,” Nov. 14 and 15, 2026

 

• Gioachino Rossini: Overture to “William Tell”

 

• Shuying Li: Coping Cadences (featuring six ASO soloists)

 

• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7

 

MW III: Jan. 30 and 31, 2027

 

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40

 

• Johannes Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77, with Blake Pouliot, violin

 

 

MW IV: Feb. 27 and 28, 2027

 

Francesco Lecce-Chong, guest conductor

 

• Hector Berlioz: “Roman Carnival” Overture

 

• Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, with Joyce Yang, piano

 

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

 

 

MW V: April 3 and 4, 2027

 

• Marina Lopez: Moño

 

•Tan Dun: Crouching Tiger Concerto with David Gerstein, cello

 

•Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

 

MW VI: ‘Rite of Spring’ 

 

with Ballet Arkansas, May 1 and 2, 2027

 

• Alexander Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy

 

• Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (with Ballet Arkansas)

 

 

First Orion Pops: From Halloween to Broadway

 

The Pops performances will also take place at the Robinson Center.

 

The 2026-2027 First Orion Pops series offers dynamic programming for audiences of all ages at the Robinson Center:

 

• Pops 1: Halloween Spooktacular (Oct. 17 & 18, 2026)

 

• Pops 2: Home for the Holidays  (Dec. 18, 19 & 20, 2026), featuring the ASO Children’s Choir established through the $1 million Susie and Charles Morgan grant

 

• Pops 3: To Whitney, with Love, a tribute to Whitney Houston (Feb. 13 & 14, 2027), starring LaKisha Jones, a top-four finalist from the 2007 season of “American Idol”

 

• Pops 4: Bravo Broadway  (May 8 & 9, 2027)

 

• Pops Special: Disney’s The Lion King in Concert  (March 12, 13 & 14, 2027)

 

River Rhapsodies: Chamber Series at the Music Center

 

Held in the Susie and Charles Morgan Hall at the ASO Stella Boyle Smith Music Center in Little Rock’s East Village, the River Rhapsodies series offers audiences an intimate chamber music experience.

 

 • RR1: Oct. 5, 2026 — Artist of Distinction Stewart Goodyear, piano

 

• RR2: Nov. 17 & 18, 2026

 

• RR3: Jan. 12 & 13, 2027

 

• RR4: Feb. 2, 2027 — Artist of Distinction Blake Pouliot, violin

 

• RR5: March 16 & 17, 2027

 

• RR6: April 13 & 14, 2027

 

Season subscriptions are now available by calling the ASO Box Office at 501-666-1761. Single tickets will be available in summer 2026. Programs, artists and dates are subject to change.