Name: Audience Choice
Start: 2026-01-18T15:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-01-18T17:00:00-05:00
Location: The Community Church of Vero Beach

The SCSO’s commitment to new music is on full display on this special program. Composer Christopher Marshall has written many pieces for the SCSO over the last seventeen years. Solace is a profound and gorgeous new piece written for clarinet and strings in memory of his life partner, John Endemann. The work which was written for Jennifer Royals and commissioned by the SCSO, describes the eventual arrival at a state of acceptance, peace and healing. The SCSO will also present the World Premiere of Steven Landis’ Construct, a single movement work that depicts the life of an idea from basic concept to fruition, exemplified not only by the music, but also by the concert hall itself. The second half of the concert belongs to you. Beginning in September, audiences were invited to vote for the music they most wanted to hear as part of our First Annual Audience Choice Concert. The response was incredible—1,049 votes were cast—and the results are now in.
Step into a world of cinematic drama and timeless storytelling as we present a collection of the most iconic masterworks in the operatic canon chosen by you, opening with the stately grandeur of Verdi’s Overture to Aida, introducing the opera’s sweeping themes of love and duty through shimmering strings and bold, imperial fanfares. Next comes the sparkling wit of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, a whirlwind of playful woodwinds and infectious energy driven by the famous “Rossini crescendo.” The intensity surges with Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” from Die Walküre—a blazing burst of rhythm and brass that remains one of the most exhilarating moments in orchestral music. The program concludes with Bizet’s Carmen Suites Nos. 1 & 2, featuring iconic moments like the “Habanera,” “Toreador Song,” and “Danse Bohème,” capturing the fiery passion and drama of this timeless masterpiece.