HSO’s outdoor ‘Symphony in Park’ returns to Bushnell Park after more than a decade

After more than a decade, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra is once again playing outdoors in Bushnell Park. The free concert “Symphony in the Park” is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. If there’s bad weather, the concert will move inside to The Bushnell.

The HSO has partnered with CTrides to offer free bus transportation via CT Transit and CT Fastrack to the concert.

Although the full HSO hasn’t performed in the park in many years, other outdoor shows have been a regular part of HSO programming, including the “Summer Splash” and “Talcott Mountain Music” series.

“This concert is an opportunity for the community to come together, building pride in downtown Hartford, celebrating resilience in adapting to the pandemic, and rejoicing in the power of music to bring people together,” said HSO’s president and CEO Steve Collins in a press release.

What will they be playing? In the Saturday concert, the orchestra will be playing wWorks by major Latin-American and Spanish composers. A suite based on “West Side Story.” All-American standards by John Philip Sousa and Duke Ellington. The guest performer is violinist Tyler Tan, a Cheshire teen who was one of the co-winners of the 2021 Young Artist Competition.

The full program:

• “America the Beautiful,” which was originally composed by Samuel A. Ward in the late 19th century as “Materna” before patriotic lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates were added.

• “Alegría,” a 1996 work by the modernist Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra.

• Anton Dvořák’s “Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 1,” which the HSO performed just last month at one of its Masterworks concerts.

• An orchestral tribute to Duke Ellington, the big band leader who also composed symphonies.

• The overture to Franz von Suppé's 1866 operetta “The Light Cavalry.”

• Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen,” written in 1878 and inspired by Hungarian folk music.

• The symphonic suite derived from Leonard’s Bernstein’s “West Side Story” score, arranged by Jack Mason. The HSO played a different arrangement of “West Side Story” at a concert in November.

• The popular contemporary Mexican classical composition “Danzón No. 2″ by Arturo Márquez.

• John Philip Sousa’s rousing march “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Conducting the concert is Adam Boyles, the HSO’s assistant conductor.

At an event on Wednesday and on social media, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin mentioned “Symphony in the Park” as a kick-off to a season of outdoor cultural events in Hartford, many of them cross-promoted under the partnership program Summer in the City jointly organized by the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the City of Hartford. The park concert’s main presenter is The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

More information about Saturday’s concert can be found at hartfordsymphony.org.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.