Merriam-Webster defines icon as “a person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere.” This year the Topeka Symphony is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation with 250 years of American Icons. We will be playing masterworks by America’s greatest composers, from Leonard Bernstein to George Gershwin to Aaron Copland. We will be playing music inspired by America’s most dramatic natural landmarks, from the Grand Canyon to the Mississippi River to the Grand Tetons and the Great Plains. And we will be playing music that captures the iconic spirit of America’s cities, town, and villages, from the teeming metropolis of New York to a hamlet in rural Appalachia. Our season of American Icons will bring both familiar orchestral repertoire to our stage and introduce a few new pieces shaping the 21st-century landscape of American music, and we will also feature musicians from all across the country as well as those who come from right here in the Midwest and Kansas.

In this 250th anniversary year of our country, we proudly present the iconic people, places, and sounds that have created and inspired the American musical landscape. Join us in this celebration of American Icons!