South Dakota Symphony Orchestra Announces 2024-25 Season

The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra announced details of the 2024-25 season, its 103rd, which will feature the greatly anticipated revival of Giants in the Earth – the Pulitzer Prize winning opera by American composer Douglas Moore (The Ballad of Baby Doe) based on Ole Edvart Rølvaag’s epic novel about Norwegian settlers of the Dakota Territory in 1873.

The SDSO’s production will be the first ever fully professional staging of Moore’s opera.

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The new season opens October 5th in the Washington Pavilion with a program featuring Symphonie fantastique of Hector Berlioz and acclaimed American violinist Rachel Barton Pine as soloist for Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy and Wynton Marsalis’ “The Fiddler and the Dancin’ Witch.”

Other highlights include SDSO principal cellist Robert Erhard as soloist for Dvorak’s Cello Concerto (Nov. 16, 2024), the world premiere of Theodore Wiprud’s Violin Concerto No. 2 on the brink (Jan. 25, 2025), Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture from Romeo & Juliet alongside a trio of works by influential women composers (Feb. 15, 2024), and a multi-media program with music of Ravel and Stravinsky created by Joseph Horowitz that explores the impact of “New World” creative icons including George Gershwin, Josephine Baker, and Woody Herman on “Old World” Europe and Russia (Mar. 1, 2025).

The South Dakota Symphony Chorus will be featured in Handel’s Messiah (December 6 & 7, 2024) and Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C Minor (Apr. 5, 2025).

“With the help of some extremely generous funders, we are able to bring to life some very exciting projects that have been in the planning stages for some time,” said SDSO Music Director Delta David Gier about the new season. “One of the most exciting is Giants in the Earth-an opera based on the iconic novel by Ole Rølvaag, which tells the story of Norwegian homesteaders coming right here to eastern South Dakota during the 1870s.

Of course, this new season is filled with wonderful symphonic masterworks and prestigious soloists, along with two exciting world premieres by important contemporary American composers.”

For ticket information and more go HERE