Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025, 7 P.M.

Buckley Recital Hall, Arms Music Center, Amherst College

The Amherst Symphony Orchestra (ASO) presents the second concert in its 2025-2026 season on Saturday evening, October 18, 2025 at 7pm in Buckley Recital Hall, Arms Music Center, on the Amherst College campus. 

 

The concert opens with the collegiate premiere of Civil Disobedience by Eric Sawyer, Professor of Composition, in which words drawn from Henry David Thoreau's famous essay of the same title will be narrated to Sawyer's evocative music by Lawrence Douglas, Professor of Law, Jurisprudence & Social Thought. Driven by his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery, Thoreau argues for explicit resistance to unjust and immoral government action, a message which continues to resonate to this day. 

 

The program continues with the canonic Symphony #1 ("Afro-American") by William Grant Still, and concludes after intermission with the ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin.  Hampshire College senior Natalie Sandor (a longstanding member of the ASO on violin!) is piano soloist.  Mark Lane Swanson, ASO Music Director, conducts.

 

Admission is free.