MOUNT VERNON — The Knox County Symphony continues celebrating its 60th season with its annual Fall Concert on Saturday at the R. R. Hodges Chapel Auditorium at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.
The centerpiece of the concert will be Vasily Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1, a lyrical,
spirited work completed in 1895. Well known among Russian musicians during his short life, Kalinnikov (1866–1901) was admired by Tchaikovsky and counted Rachmaninoff as a close friend.
Knox County Symphony Conductor Benjamin Locke has written that the composer “masterfully utilizes Russian folk tunes in his compositions, and certainly one or two permeate his Symphony No. 1.”
The symphony exemplifies the “sheer, exhilarating energy” of Kalinnikov’s best work, according to composer and scholar Jonathan Blumhofer.
The first movement “kicks off with its sweeping opening theme and never looks back,” Blumhofer wrote in an article for the online arts magazine The Arts Fuse.
The third movement’s “earthy romp,” he continued, leads to “a finale that’s a tour-de-force,” including passages that are “surely one of the most exuberant concluding symphonic episodes in the 19th-century symphonic canon.”
The Oct. 25 program also includes Danse Macabre, by Camille Saint-Saëns; the “March of the Knights” from Sergei Prokofiev’s second suite drawn from his ballet Romeo and Juliet; the Thunder and Lightning Polka, by Johann Strauss Jr.; and the Andante from Franz Josef Haydn’s Surprise Symphony (Symphony No. 94).
About the Knox County Symphony
Founded in 1965, the Knox County Symphony comprises more than sixty musicians, including many local community members along with students from Kenyon College, Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and area high schools. Locke has conducted the ensemble since 1984.
The group’s next concert, on January 31, 2026, will feature performances by the high
school and college student winners of the Young Musicians Competition.
Single tickets for Saturday’s concert cost $10 for adults and $7 for senior citizens. Students with a valid ID may attend free of charge.