UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed.
The San Antonio Symphony and Ballet San Antonio are teaming up again this year to present a holiday classic: The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Performances began Thanksgiving weekend and continue next weekend, December 6-8. The Symphony and the Ballet invited my family and me to attend the concert, and shared a four-pack of tickets for the 7 p.m. performance on December 6 for me to give away to my readers. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment (no later than Wednesday, December 4): What’s your favorite holiday music tradition—a ballet, a carol, a movie . . . ?
Next weekend’s performances of “The Nutcracker”, all at the Majestic Theatre, are at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 6, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, December 8. Order tickets online at sasymphony.org, call the Symphony box office at (210) 554-1010, or go through Ticketmaster. I recommend buying tickets in advance; performances are selling out.
This will be my first live performance of “The Nutcracker”, but when I was little we had “The Nutcracker Suite” on cassette, and we played it over and over while playing dolls, sewing, and making crafts. The cassette included other Tchaikovsky ballet suites—”Swan Lake” and “Sleeping Beauty,” if I remember correctly—so we would play it year round; I don’t really associate “The Nutcracker” with the holidays, but I love the inventive and energetic music. I’m excited to have the opportunity to see a fully staged production and share this experience with my kids.
Learn more about this fully-local production of “The Nutcracker” by reading this interview with Akiko Fujimoto, Associate Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony, here: “Symphony And Ballet Present Christmas Staple, ‘The Nutcracker'”, Jack Morgan, Texas Public Radio, November 27, 2013. Watch San Antonio Living’s Shelly Miles interview Prima Ballerina Sarah Pautz, and listen to symphony members perform a string quartet arrangement of “The Waltz of the Flowers”, here: “San Antonio’s Ballet & Symphony”, WOAI-TV, November 25, 2013.
The Symphony and the Ballet are committed to arts education in San Antonio. Through the Learning That Moves You outreach program, students from underserved areas will be able to attend two abridged performances of “The Nutcracker” on December 5 and 6.
Can’t make it to “The Nutcracker”? The Symphony will offer two more Family Concerts this season, including:
- December 22, 2013: Holiday Magic!—A Family Holiday Celebration, at Laurie Auditorium
- April 13, 2014: Peter and the Wolf, at Laurie Auditorium
Learn more about Family Concerts (including the instrument petting zoo) in this earlier post.
The Symphony will also offer two more DISCOVER series concerts this season. Each program opens with an introduction by Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing; during the performance, a video screen above the orchestra shows close-ups of the conductor and musicians. Mark your calendars:
- February 9, 2014: DISCOVER “New World” Symphony
- May 11, 2014: DISCOVER Schubert “The Great”
Learn more about the DISCOVER series concerts in this earlier post.
If you would you like to enter the giveaway for a four-pack of tickets to “The Nutcracker” with the San Antonio Symphony and Ballet San Antonio at the Majestic Theatre at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 6, then please leave a comment: What is your favorite holiday musical tradition? I will notify the winner on December 5. Good luck!
Disclosure: The San Antonio Symphony gave me tickets for my family to use at the performance, and four tickets to give away.
Ballet photographs © Still Life Photography.
