Nittany Valley Symphony Hearts on Fire Concert
The Nittany Valley Symphony (NVS) will present its 2025–26 season finale, “Hearts on Fire,” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, at Bellefonte Area High School.
Tickets are $25 for adults, and $5 for students and youth. Tickets may be purchased at https://www.nvs.org/concerts/hearts-on-fire online or by calling 814-231-8224.
“Hearts on Fire” brings love, loss and transcendence to the fore in a grand display of romantic tragedy, lyrical beauty and the triumph of spirit. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture opens the program with an evocative reimagining of William Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy and all the passion and drama thereof.
The Nittany Valley Symphony welcomes George Carpten IV, assistant professor of trumpet at Penn State, as trumpet soloist for Oskar Böhme’s expressive and virtuosic Trumpet Concerto in F Minor. By maintaining a balance between virtuosic display and musical expressiveness, Böhme’s Romantic-style Trumpet Concerto expands the traditional perception of the trumpet beyond fanfare and brilliance to include sustained lyricism and emotional depth.
A fitting close to the symphony’s 59th season, Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major presents a triumphant testament to resilience and hope. Passages of restless energy and forward motion build tension that leads to an expansive and powerful conclusion — one of the greatest symphonic climaxes in the orchestral repertoire.