San Antonio Symphony and Tobin Center to Offer Free Tickets to Federal Workers Affected By Government Shutdown

For Immediate Release: January 22, 2019

Media Contact:

Zachary Boeding, Marketing Coordinator 210-554-1066 / [email protected]

SAN ANTONIO SYMPHONY AND TOBIN CENTER TO OFFER FREE TICKETS TO
FEDERAL WORKERS AFFECTED BY SHUTDOWN

SEBASTIAN LANG-LESSING LEADS THE SYMPHONY
IN MAHLER’S FINAL SYMPHONY

SAN ANTONIO— This weekend, the San Antonio Symphony and the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts begin offering free tickets to furloughed federal workers or those required to work without pay until the end of the government shutdown.

“As our loyal civil servants struggle to make ends meet to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their families, we offer the gift of music to feed their souls during this period of extreme hardship,” said Kathleen Weir Vale, Board Chair of the San Antonio Symphony. “We stand in support of these, our neighbors and friends, who enhance our society and make our country great.”

Affected employees will be eligible to receive two free tickets to Classics or Pops performances by showing a valid government ID at the Tobin Center Box Office. For more information, please visit the Box Office in person or by calling (210) 223-8624.

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Maestro Sebastian Lang-Lessing will lead the San Antonio Symphony in Journey’s End: Mahler Symphony No. 9, this weekend on Friday and Saturday, January 25 and 26, at the Tobin Center for Performing Arts.

“This is one of the programs that’s closest to my heart this season. Mahler’s 9th Symphony represents the pinnacle of human creativity. It will change your perspective and touch you deeply,” Maestro Lang-Lessing offered. “For us musicians, it’s a deep journey into our souls.”

Lang-Lessing is in good company with his views on this Symphony. The great Leonard Bernstein said, “It is terrifying, and paralyzing, as the strands of sound disintegrate … in ceasing, we lose it all. But in letting go, we have gained everything.”

Scored for large orchestra, the work is one of contrasts and extremes; and though it bears the title “Ninth Symphony,” it is not actually his Ninth or final Symphony. The Curse of the Ninth has become a great superstition among composers and states their Ninth Symphony is destined to be their last. Many great composers have succumbed to this fate: Beethoven, Dvořák, and Schubert, to name a few.

It was Mahler, however, who tried to cheat it: Das Lied von der Erde (A Symphony for Alto, Tenor, and Orchestra) technically followed his Eighth Symphony, making what is now known as his Ninth Symphony actually his tenth. And days after completing his Ninth Symphony, he began sketches on a “Tenth” Symphony.

The only thread these three works share is that they were all written during the end of his life when he was obsessed with the idea of death, after being diagnosed with the heart disease that would ultimately kill him.

Listen to an interview with Bruno Walter, one of Mahler’s greatest champions, here.

The next concert presented by the San Antonio Symphony is A Tribute to Emilio Navaira, at the Tobin Center for Performing Arts, on Thursday, January 31, 2019. Also join us for a free concert at Saint Philip’s College on February 2, at 7 p.m., featuring works by Coleridge-Taylor and Dvořák.

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JOURNEY’S END: MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 9
H-E-B Performance Hall, The Tobin Center

Friday, January 25, 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 26, 8:00 p.m.

San Antonio Symphony

Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor

MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 in D Major

TICKETS

Tickets range from $10 - $18, and can be purchased online at www.tobincenter.org, via phone (210) 223-8624, or in-person at the Tobin Center Box Office: 100 Auditorium Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78205.

Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.

ABOUT THE SAN ANTONIO SYMPHONY
The San Antonio Symphony, established in 1939, is a nonprofit performing arts organization with the mission to delight, engage, and enrich the entire community through excellent performance, education, and outreach. Under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing and Assistant Conductor Noam Aviel, the San Antonio Symphony gives more than 100 performances annually, including classics, pops, educational programs, movie concerts, and performances with our fellow resident opera and ballet companies. With more than 70 professional musicians, the Symphony serves over 130,000 people per year including over 50,000 students. For more information about the San Antonio Symphony, please visit SASymphony.org.