The Akron Symphony Orchestra has announced what it’s billing as its biggest season yet, with seven 2026-2027 concerts focusing on both the symphonic repertoire and modern gems.
That ranges from classic concert centerpieces such as Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 to pop culture-rooted works that draw on storytelling from film scores and video game music.
Dipping more into pop culture is a key initiative by the orchestra, aimed at meeting the desires of younger audiences while still reinforcing the audience’s experience of classical music, Music Director Christopher Wilkins said. Part of the goal is to build on an 18-year high in single ticket sales from last season.
“In American culture these days, we’re well past a tipping point where today’s potential concertgoers are mostly unacquainted with the core symphonic repertoire. Overwhelmingly, they don’t know how many symphonies Beethoven wrote. They don’t know what century Vivaldi lived in and why should they?” Wilkins asked.
“There is so much great music from all over the world to know, nobody can name it all. But they’re exposed to a lot of music, and young people in particular these days are really good at connecting the dots, especially if you give them a few useful prompts,” he said.
‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ suite
Many successful composers today who are writing for orchestras are also creating music for video games, Wilkins said. The same can be said for film music, which will be featured on the Akron Symphony’s opening concert Oct. 17 at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron.
The orchestra will perform composer Joe Hisashi’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” suite for Studio Ghibli, a renowned Japanese anime film studio. The famed animated fantasy film of the same name came out in 2004 and has become mainstream in America.
The world-famous Hisashi, the premiere composer for Studio Ghibli, has conducted the Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony. His film score for “Howl’s Moving Castle” is written for symphony.
These anime films, which have a mythic thread, are “like folk tales on steroids” with spectuclar artwork, Wilkins explained. That’s why he paired “Howl’s Moving Castle” suite on the program with Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from Disney’s “Fantasia.”
“I think the closest thing for the old generation relative to anime is ‘Fantasia,'” he said.
Cleveland composer featured in November
For more new music, Margaret Brouwer, professor emeritus at the Cleveland Institute of Music, will be featured with her work “The Art of Sailing at Dawn” Nov. 14. The orchestra closed its 2025-26 season with another work by the Cleveland composer, “Rhapsody: Concert for Orchestra.”
Wilkins has chosen classical works to both contrast with and complement Brouwer’s piece. Also on the November program is the contrasting, dark power of Mozart’s urgent “Requiem” for a smaller chamber orchestra.
Arnold Schoenberg’s “Transfigured Night” for chamber orchestra, a piece with emotional resonance about a young couple strolling at night whose love leads to transcendent places, also will be performed.
“I thought it’d be fun to pair it with a work by Margaret Brouwer on the other end of the cycle of the sun and do something that occurs at dawn” with her “The Art of Sailing at Dawn,” Wilkins said. “This piece (“The Art of Sailing at Dawn”) opens like the breaking of dawn and then becomes quite ecstatic.”
Work by young African American composer
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, Bakhuri Nokuri’s “Afrospire” will be featured on a program that also includes Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. The concert will be Jan. 16, 2027.
“We’ve got to be true to our mission, which is to be representative for the whole community. So it’s women, it’s people from all economic walks of life, people of all cultural backgrounds,” Wilkins said of composers featured in the new season.
Nokuri won the National Young Composers Challenge run by Wilkins in Orlando in 2023 for his composition “David, Movement II Jauntily” when he was in high school. The composer, whose family comes from Cameroon, is a composition major at the University of Southern California and writes in styles ranging from big band to Afro-Caribbean.
His “Afrospire” was originally written for a wind ensemble in the jazz band tradition, which Wilkins asked Nokuri to reorchestrate for orchestra for next winter’s concert. The piece features rhythms from the African diaspora.
‘The Four Seasons Recomposed’
“The Four Seasons: Recomposed,” which British composer Max Richter created in 2012, will be featured in a concert program by that name Feb. 13, 2027.
“It’s become a popular hit and it’s not on everybody’s radar,” Wilkins said. “It sounds like (Vivaldi’s) ‘The Four Seasons’ but you can tell it’s a mashup of different elements. It’s like he broke it into pieces and reassembled it in a post-modern way.”
Cross-over composer Richter, who comes from a classical background, is interested in reaching a wide audience, Wilkins stressed.
“It’s kind of dreamy, almost psychedelic but it’s become super popular and it has helped Max Richter become very well known,” Wilkins said of “The Four Seasons Recomposed.”
“We’re tying some threads together with Vivaldi and Richter and classical works and some things that are influenced by classical works,” said Wilkins, whose February program also includes pieces by Mozart, Alexander Borodin and Spanish-American composer Andrea Casarrubios.
‘Emlanjeni’ bicentennial work
On March 6, 2027, the orchestra will open with Hudson composer James Wilding’s updated version of his “Emlanjeni,” which he originally created for the ensemble to play at a concert last December for Akron’s bicentennial. The title comes from the Xhosa people of Eastern Arbitrage, South Africa, which means “at the river.” Wilding is a professor of composition and theory at the University of Akron.
His wife, Caroline Oltmanns, a professor at Youngstown State University, will headline the evening as soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor.”
All-classical concert
On April 10, 2027, an all-classical concert will feature Chaminade’s “Callirhoe Prelude,” Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Sibelius’ little-known “The Tempest” and Debussy’s “La Mer.” The program links works about the ocean, Shakespeare and classical mythology.
French composer Cecile Shaminade composed “Callirhoe Prelude,” which originally was ballet music, in 1888.
“Nobody’s ever heard of her and I kind of love when that happens,” Wilkins said. “She’s underrecognized for sure. She’s considered one of the greats of her day.”
“We will always be looking to perform great works by women,” he said.
Video game music in season finale
Christopher Tin’s 2011 Grammy-winning work “Baba Yetu,” from the Civilization IV video game franchise, will be performed in the final concert of the season. It was the first video game music to win a Grammy Award.
“‘Baba Yetu’ is probably the biggest hit from the biggest release of Civilization music of all,” Wilkins said.
The Swahili title “Baba Yetu” means “Our Father.” The Akron Symphony Chorus will sing this work with the orchestra.
The program also will include Rachmaninoff’s final work, “The Bells” and Tchaikovsky’s explosive Symphony No. 4, both epic orchestral works from the Russian Romantic school.
How to purchase tickets
Other concerts for 2026-27 will be Holiday Pops Dec. 11, Gospel Meets Symphony Feb. 6, 2027, and Music of Taylor Swift March 20, 2027.
For information on season subscriptions, call 330-535-8131 or see akronsymphony.org/subscriptions. Season subscriptions and flex subscriptions are offered. Parking for the season is free at all E.J. Thomas Hall events.
Summer orchestra happenings
This summer, the Akron Symphony will perform free concerts in Akron’s parks for its Summer Parks series at 7:30 p.m. July 26 at Forest Lodge Park and Aug. 2 at Goodyear Metro Park. Classical masterpieces and other favorites will include works by Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin and Charles Ives.
Vocal powerhouse Stephanie Childers-White of Akron, alongside Gospel Meets Symphony Choirmaster Jonathon Turner, will perform a selection of soulful pops and Eric Benjamin’s “Soap Box Derby Rag” will be performed.
Finally, the Akron Symphony hosts its popular Lakes Tour, a boat tour of homes on the Portage Lakes, July 15. Limited tickets remain for the lake-hopping event, which includes an after party at the Upper Deck. See akronsymphony.org/event/lakes-tour-2026.
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New Akron Symphony season mixes classics with anime, pop culture music
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal | USA TODAY Network
