Concert a Blast of ‘Orchestral Firepower’
Boom! Audience helps with sound effects for 1812 Overture
(VERO BEACH, FL) July 14, 2025 – In the follow-up to Independence Day, the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will present a concert of three booming works with a little help from the audience. The SCSO will unleash its Orchestral Firepower at 3:00 PM on Sunday, July 27 at the Community Church of Vero Beach, 1901 23rd Street, 32960. Tchaikovsky’s exhilarating 1812 Overture will be performed in its entirety. Commemorating Russia’s defense against Napoleon’s invasion, the piece is notable for its dramatic orchestration, simulating cannons and church bells in a powerful and celebratory sound. A number of audience members will take a role in the rousing finale of the work, providing the cannon fire by popping brown paper bags and ringing handbells when cued by the conductor. Vero Beach resident and principal clarinetist for the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer Royals will be spotlighted in R. Michael Daugherty’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings, a work whose three movements are titled “Passion,” “Frustration” and “Jubilation,” respectively. An audience favorite and founding member of the orchestra, Royals is a sought-after clinician who provides private clarinet instruction to middle and high school players in Indian River County. Composer R. Michael Daugherty is also a resident of Vero Beach. The concerto, written for Royals, is one of Daugherty’s roughly 400 compositions in a catalog containing a wide variety of genres. Orchestral Firepower concludes with the powerful Symphony No. 6 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Composed under the cultural constraints of the Soviet Union, the large work did not deliver the promised “symphony to the immortal image of Lenin.” Instead, Shostakovich’s work better describes an illogical and contradictory world, in a juxtaposition of starkly contrasting moods. Tickets for Orchestral Firepower are $35 in advance for adults, available through the orchestra website at SpaceCoastSymphony.org or at Marine Bank & Trust, beachside and mainland branches. Tickets at the door are $40. Orchestral Firepower is free for those aged 18 and under or with a student ID. For more information, call 855-252-7276 or visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org.
Artistic Director and Conductor, Aaron T. Collins explains a bit of what concertgoers can expect.
“We have three very different and equally exciting works on this concert,” said Collins. “We will showcase our very talented principal clarinetist from Vero Beach, one of the many excellent musicians in the ranks of the SCSO. The orchestra will immerse itself in Shostakovich’s deeply felt sixth symphony. And of course – the audience will have a lot of fun helping the orchestra out with the 1812 overture.”
Concertgoers aged 18 and under or with a college ID are admitted free to every SCSO concert. For more information about the Space Coast Symphony’s 2025-26 Season, please visit SpaceCoastSymphony.org or call (855) 252-7276.
