Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra Overture Concert

The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra opens its 2026/27 season at Atlanta Symphony Hall on Sunday, November 8, at 6 PM. It's their first concert of the new season, and it falls on the ASYO Alumni Reunion weekend, so there'll be plenty of former members back in town for it.

Music Director William R. Langley is leading the orchestra, and Artist-In-Residence Anna Geniushene joins in as the piano soloist. The program pulls from three different centuries: J.S. Bach's Partita No. 2, BWV 1004 in D minor, specifically the Chaconne; the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 37 in C minor, Allegro con brio; and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 4 in its 1947 revision. It's a wide spread—Bach's solo violin work, Beethoven's concerto with piano, and a full symphony to close.

For context, the ASYO has been around since 1974 as a subsidiary of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It takes in the region's most talented 8th- through 12th-grade instrumentalists and gives them the chance to perform orchestral masterworks at a high level. Michael Palmer served as its inaugural director, followed by Jere Flint, who led the ensemble from 1979 to 2014. William R. Langley now serves as Resident Conductor and ASYO Music Director. Over half a century, the orchestra has produced many alumni who went on to become orchestral musicians, soloists, conductors, and educators, and it's staged cultural exchanges with youth orchestras in Great Britain, Australia, Berlin, and various US cities. It also played on the world stage during the 1996 Cultural Olympiad and the Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games, which were broadcast globally.

Admission is free, but you have to reserve your tickets in advance. The concert is Sunday, November 8, at 6 PM at Atlanta Symphony Hall.