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The Maryland Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is proud to honor veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their families with free tickets to its upcoming concerts, Shakespeare in Symphony, on Saturday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 15 at 3:00 p.m. at The Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown.

In celebration of Veterans Day, this special offer invites military families to spend time together and experience the stories of William Shakespeare brought to life through orchestral music.

Led by Music Director Elizabeth Schulze, Shakespeare in Symphony explores the love, conflict, humor, and heartbreak that have made Shakespeare’s works resonate across generations. The program features Tchaikovsky’s Overture to Hamlet, Walton’s Suite from Henry V, Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.

“Music has the power to unite, heal, and honor,” Kim Bowen, Executive Director of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, said. “We are deeply grateful to our veterans and service members, and it is our privilege to welcome them and their families to enjoy an evening of extraordinary music as our guests.

Veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their families may reserve complimentary tickets by calling 301-797-4000 and mentioning the Veterans Day offer or visiting tickets.marylandsymphony.org and entering the discount code TYVETS at checkout.

Box seats are excluded from the offer. For additional information about Shakespeare in Symphony or upcoming performances, visit www.marylandsymphony.org. 

When the Maryland Symphony Youth Orchestra takes the stage on December 3, Dr. Britney Alcine will be leading a group of young musicians whose growth she has helped shape, and whose accomplishments continue to surprise and inspire her.

As the MSYO’s Hugh and Marty Talton Youth Conductor, Alcine brings her love of music and belief in young musicians to an ensemble that completed its inaugural season in June 2026. Ahead of the winter concert, we asked her about her path to conducting, what she enjoys about working with the MSYO, and the advice she would give her younger self.

What first drew you to conducting, and when did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue?

I was first drawn to conducting as a rookie member of my marching band. I joined my high school marching band as a freshman in high school and our drum majors were two talented and respectful seniors that we all looked up to. They were both musical, had great presence, and were overall wonderful resources to the band. I remember sitting in the stands at one of the last football games of the season that year and asking one of the other seniors what it would take to become the drum major, and he asked me if that was something I wanted to do. I didn’t know it yet, but that was the first time I actually thought of becoming a conductor and leading an ensemble myself. I later became the lead drum major of my high school marching band in my junior and senior years of high school, but it wasn’t until my junior year of college that I considered pursuing conducting as an area of study and careers for conducting, and that’s where the journey really took off.

What has been the most rewarding part of working with the young musicians of the Maryland Symphony Youth Orchestra?

Seeing the growth of the musicians, whether over a concert cycle or from year to year, has been the most rewarding part of working with the MSYO. The young musicians are so receptive to my instruction and are always eager to improve. I think they tend to surprise themselves with what they are able to achieve, and that is a special thing to witness.

When you’re working with young musicians, what do you hope they take away from the experience?

There is so much that goes into a great performance: being a contributing member of a section, playing a solo very expressively, playing in tune and in time, and the list goes on, but what I hope young musicians take away from my work with them is to play with confidence and to serve the music. Both of those things make the performing and listening experience that much more exhilarating.

If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice about pursuing music, what would it be?

Keep going. Pursuing music is not about having the most talent; it’s about doing it even when you want to stop. I’ve had multiple moments in my life where I’ve questioned whether I was good enough or whether I should stop and try another career path, and after those moments of self-doubt I’ve come back more determined to push forward because I love music and conducting, and I can’t give them up.

Hear Their Progress. Share in Their Music.

Join Dr. Alcine and the Maryland Symphony Youth Orchestra for an evening celebrating the dedication, talent, and growth of our region’s young musicians. Bring your family, invite a friend, and help give these students a warm welcome as they share what they’ve been working toward.

Thursday, December 3, 2026 | 7 p.m.
Williamsport High School
Tickets: $10 adults | $5 children

Purchase tickets at tickets.marylandsymphony.org.

How do you tell a story without saying a word?

Shakespeare gave his characters plenty to say. But their feelings—like the excitement of falling in love, the weight of suspicion, the thrill of mischief—can take on a life of their own through music.

In Shakespeare in Symphony, four composers approach four very different worlds: the troubled court of Hamlet, the royal pageantry of Henry V, the enchanted confusion of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the love and conflict of Romeo and Juliet. Together, they offer a chance to hear familiar stories from a different perspective.

Ahead of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s November 14 and 15 performances, Music Director Elizabeth Schulze takes us behind the score to explore what drew these composers to Shakespeare, how an orchestra brings his characters to life, and what to listen for along the way.

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What drew you to this program? What interested you about bringing these four Shakespeare-inspired works together?

Elizabeth Schulze: I’ve been a fan of Shakespeare ever since my parents took me to my first play, “As You Like It,” at the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. I was immediately taken by the musicality of his poetry. Shakespeare has fascinated writers, actors, artists, composers and audiences for centuries. Many of our greatest composers have created operas, incidental music and even musical theater works that retell Shakespeare’s stories. I’ve been eager for the MSO to revisit Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet music, so that was always going to be the core of the program. And because that is such a masterful and popular work, I wanted to surround it with other Shakespeare-inspired works, some familiar and some not so well known.

Shakespeare’s plays have inspired composers for centuries. What do you think makes his stories such a rich starting point for music?

Elizabeth: It starts with his poetry. The language of the plays is always musical. It engages the ear, challenges, entices and delights. His stories seem universal and often have their roots in more ancient stories. Even the historical plays have that epic quality that can take you right to the battlefield or into the mind of a king or a general.

For someone who hasn’t read these plays, what would be helpful to know before listening? How much of the story do we need to bring with us?

Elizabeth: Most of our composers enter into the plot of the play through musical characterization. Even if you don’t know the story, the music vividly depicts the main characters by tying them to musical themes that evoke their particular personality traits or tell their dramatic story arcs and inner lives.

We begin with Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet. This is a story full of grief, suspicion, and difficult choices. How does Tchaikovsky bring us into that world, and what should we listen for in the overture?

Elizabeth: Tchaikovsky was engaged to write several short works of incidental music to be performed between the acts or important scenes of the play. This music was intended to support the drama by setting the mood, while not replacing the action or words. When those plans fell through, he fashioned a Fantasy-Overture from the musical fragments he had prepared. The result was a wonderful mood piece that didn’t seek to tell the story outright, but rather dramatically evoke a dark, tragic atmosphere and the emotional states of the major characters. His depiction of the doomed Ophelia with a theme played by the oboe is especially successful.

Walton’s Henry V takes us into a very different setting. What gives this music its character, and where do you hear something more personal beneath the royal pageantry?

Elizabeth: First of all, it’s film music and therefore tied to specific images, characters and actions. But we will not be performing the actual film score. The conductor of the film, Muir Mathieson, worked with Walton to develop a suite for orchestra that refashioned and adapted the film music into longer episodes that were more suitable for the concert hall. Walton’s music was originally conceived, though he did reference a few 15th- and 16th-century drinking, battle and courting songs from Britain and France to evoke the period of the story.

Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream brings a little mischief to the program. How does he suggest the magic, humor, and confusion of the play through the orchestra? Is there a particular musical detail you’d point out to listeners?

Elizabeth: The first miracle of this work is that it was written by a 17-year-old! But perhaps it is the youthfulness and energy and fantasy of the young Mendelssohn that guaranteed the perfection of his impression of Shakespeare’s perfect play. The music is perfectly balanced, with shimmering strings evoking the world of fairies. Bottom’s donkey brays provide humor, and the gentle love theme, courtly entrances and hunting calls all reference scenes within the play, but the overall musical structure hews less to the drama and more to the traditional sonata-allegro form established by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is at the heart of this concert. What makes his telling of the story so compelling to you?

Elizabeth: I’ll never forget seeing a film of Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing this masterpiece by Prokofiev in a famous Royal Ballet production from 1966. Not only was I enamored of the dancers, but the music seemed to be creating the scene and telling the story in a most powerful way, impelling and inspiring the dancers, rather than simply supporting them or providing a musical backdrop. The music itself transformed the brilliant thirty- and forty-something dancers into the youths of the play, in all their innocence and passion.

In the selections we’ll hear from Romeo and Juliet, which characters or moments should audiences listen for? How does Prokofiev help us recognize the tenderness, tension, or conflict in a scene?

Elizabeth: I’ve selected excerpts from both orchestral suites, derived from the ballet music, that vividly display Prokofiev’s genius at characterization, but even more so, his ability to convey action, pageantry and passion that impels a listener to see as well as hear. The youthful innocence of Juliet, the terrible and fatal pride of the feuding families, the earnest passion of the young lovers and the desperate and vicious physicality of battle—all of this indelibly depicted by Prokofiev’s image-evoking music. He literally uses the orchestra like a box of paints.

These composers each have a distinct musical voice. As we move from one work to the next, what differences might listeners notice in the way they tell a story?

Elizabeth: Each of these composers sits firmly in their time stylistically. Tchaikovsky sets a mood, Walton evokes the past, Mendelssohn transcends tradition and Prokofiev paints a living picture in vivid dramatic strokes.

As a conductor, how does knowing the play influence the way you rehearse and perform the music? Do you talk with the musicians about characters and scenes, or approach those ideas in another way?

Elizabeth: The most important way into the music is understanding how the composer was influenced by Shakespeare’s works. Of course, it is essential for me to know as much as possible about the plots and characters too, but I get my cues from the composer and convey essential connections to my colleagues in the orchestra as necessary. For the most part, the composer has given the musician all the information they need in their part already.

Is there a moment in this program that you especially look forward to hearing come together? What makes it stand out for you?

Elizabeth: There is something mysterious that happens when two separate art forms encounter each other and combine. The theatrical expression of story and character meeting the abstraction of music results in something completely new, and yet the essence remains: Shakespeare revered but reimagined.

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Experience these works together in Shakespeare in Symphony. Whether you know the plays by heart or are meeting these characters for the first time, Elizabeth and the orchestra invite you to discover how four composers bring Shakespeare’s stories to life through music.

Tickets are available at tickets.marylandsymphony.org or by calling (301) 797-4000. 

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Shakespeare in Symphony

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra at The Maryland Theatre

Saturday, November 14, 2026 | 7:30 PM

Sunday, November 15, 2026 | 3:00 PM

Elizabeth Schulze, Conductor

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Overture to Hamlet

William Walton | Suite from Henry V

Felix Mendelssohn | Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sergei Prokofiev | Selections from Romeo and Juliet

Concert sponsored by the Robert & Marjorie Hobbs Family.

What does American music sound like? 

There’s likely no single answer. It can be bold and brassy, deeply lyrical, unmistakably familiar, or entirely unexpected. In American Icons, three composers offer three distinct answers to that question. 

George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland each helped shape the sound of American classical music in the 20th century. They drew inspiration from different places and created musical voices entirely their own. Together, their works move from the wit and theatrical energy of Broadway to the intimacy of Barber’s Violin Concerto and the sweeping scale of Copland’s Third Symphony. 

Ahead of the MSO’s season-opening concert, we sat down with Music Director Elizabeth Schulze to go behind the score. She shares what connects these three American voices, what to listen for throughout the evening, and why this music continues to resonate today. 

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What made Gershwin, Barber, and Copland the right composers to tell the story of American Icons? 

Elizabeth Schulze: Each of these composers belongs to what has been called America’s greatest generation. All three works on our program were written during a time of struggle and ultimate triumph in our country’s history, from the Great Depression through the end of World War II. The arts in America were essential during that time. People relied on them to lift sagging spirits, express hope, promote common cause, and honor perseverance and patriotism. 

When you think about an “American sound” in classical music, what does that mean? Is there something audiences can listen for across these three very different composers? 

Elizabeth: Each of these composers was a master of melody and song. Their clear-headed approach to lyrical expression was devoid of sentimentality but full of deeply felt, honest sentiment. There is always something attractive, virtuosic, and confident in their music, but they wear their considerable mastery lightly, with humor and sincerity. All three received Pulitzer Prizes for their work, a national stamp of approval. 

We open with Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing Overture, which comes from a political satire. What made this the right way to open the program, and what should audiences know about its sense of humor? 

Elizabeth: Folks experiencing the Great Depression were looking for release during a time of extreme financial stress and lots of political finger-pointing. Of Thee I Sing was inspired by the popular British operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan, which got away with all sorts of social commentary and criticism hidden behind humor and lighthearted satire. George and Ira Gershwin’s jazzy music and smart lyrics combined just the right amount of absurdity and fun with catchy, exuberant melodies that kept audiences laughing during a long run on Broadway. 

Barber’s Violin Concerto feels like a very different musical world from Gershwin. What do you love about this concerto, and what makes it such a special showcase for the violin? 

Elizabeth: Barber’s musical world was miles away from Gershwin’s. Gershwin grew up musically in Tin Pan Alley and found his way to classical music gradually. 

Barber was a child prodigy, immersed in classical music and composing piano works by the time he was seven years old. He was championed by the great conductor Toscanini and other classical luminaries while still in his twenties. It took some time for Barber to find his voice (and he had a beautiful baritone singing voice besides), but once he did, audiences fell in love with his ability to blend exquisite Romantic lyricism with well-balanced and judicious moments of neoclassical modernity. It was a tightrope act, but he pulled it off beautifully. In his concerto, the violin becomes a romantic hero in the first movement, a poet-troubadour in the second, and an acrobat in the third. 

The finale of Barber’s concerto has a completely different energy from the first two movements. What happens musically in those final few minutes? 

Elizabeth: The last movement was composed as a “perpetual motion,” with the violinist playing scurrying, quick notes nonstop and the orchestra breathlessly trying to keep up! This is “shredding” at its finest! 

Copland’s Third Symphony is enormous in both scale and sound. What story or journey do you hear unfolding across the symphony? 

Elizabeth: Copland composed his famous Fanfare for the Common Man in 1942. It was not yet the iconic work it would become, so he used it as building material for the finale of his Third Symphony a few years later. The massive lift of those rising notes lends itself to an epic story of the resilient American spirit. 

I hear a story of E pluribus unum in this work. In the first movement, singular strands of melody combine and recombine in call and response, creating a feeling of communion. The second movement is a declaration of strength and exuberance. The third movement has some of the most heart-wrenching moments, certainly a reflection of war and its darkness. But the music moves into the light and an exultant finale. The clouds fall away, and we hear the Fanfare in all its glory and power. 

These works were written within roughly 15 years of one another, during a particularly complicated period in American history. Do you hear that time and place reflected in the music? 

Elizabeth: Each work was written for a different situation, but each seeks to connect directly with its audience emotionally, whether to entertain, soothe, or enlighten. All of these works carry confidence and conviction in every note on the page. 

As a conductor, is there a moment in this program that you’re especially excited to experience with the orchestra? 

Elizabeth: I love each of these works: the exuberant and jazzy mastery of Gershwin, the lush romanticism of Barber, and the powerful, plainspoken honesty and grandeur of Copland. 

For someone hearing one or all three of these works for the first time, what’s one thing you’d tell them to listen for, or simply allow themselves to experience? 

Elizabeth: I hope you will hear why these works have become iconic examples of American music and revered expressions of the American spirit. Listen for exuberant and singable melodies, reflective and poignant lyricism, and confident, masterful musical forms that build and inspire. 

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Experience these works together as the MSO opens its season with American Icons. Whether you know every note or are hearing them for the first time, Elizabeth and the orchestra invite you to discover what each composer brings to the American story. 

Tickets are available at tickets.marylandsymphony.org or by calling (301) 797-4000. 

Each December, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra turns The Maryland Theatre into a place where music, tradition, and a touch of holiday mischief meet. Home for the Holidays has become a cherished hallmark of the season, and this year’s program brings together the sparkle of familiar favorites with several surprises crafted by Music Director and Conductor Elizabeth Schulze. The concert blends warmth, color, and a generous spirit—much like the holidays themselves. Join us as Elizabeth shares what inspires the program, the memories that shape her approach to this time of year, and a few reasons why this season’s celebration will feel especially spirited.

Q: What excites you most about this year’s Home for the Holidays program?
A: The repertoire is upbeat and festive and our guest artists are top notch!
Q: When you plan a holiday concert, what elements guide your decisions?
A: Making sure that there’s a good balance of familiar seasonal favorites and a few works we haven’t performed before to keep things fresh.
Q: What sets this year’s concert apart from previous seasons?
A: We’ve got bonafide, Tony and Olivier Award winning Broadway Stars joining us! Scarlett Strallen and Ben Davis will truly light up our stage!
Q: As a conductor, do you have a favorite moment during a holiday performance?
A: I love the sing-along with our audience – it’s such an uplifting moment in the program.
Q: Is there a piece on the program this year that you think audiences will be talking about afterward?
A: There are several, including a cool arrangement of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. And of course, our guest artists, Scarlett and Ben will add their special magic to every song.
Q: What is a holiday tradition you enjoy in your own life?
A: Setting up my Christmas Tree.
Q: Do you have a favorite holiday treat or recipe that makes an annual appearance?
A: I love Lebkuchen, a German gingerbread cookie. Oh, and marzipan!
Q: Thinking back to childhood, is there a musical memory that stands out from the holidays?

A: I always loved singing carols in church on Christmas Eve – it was magical.
Q: What do you hope audiences feel as they leave the theater after Home for the Holidays?
A: I hope we will have warmed their hearts and filled them with the joy of the season.
Q: For those attending the concert for the first time, what would you want them to know?
A: Welcome! We’re thrilled you’ve chosen to make our performance part of your holiday celebrations

We hope these reflections offer a small glimpse of the spirit behind Home for the Holidays. We would be delighted to see you in the audience and share a program designed to lift spirits and mark the season with care! For tickets, visit tickets.marylandsymphony.org.