Dead Symphony in Georgia

Southern Deadheads have a special opportunity coming up. On October 5th, Georgia's LaGrange Symphony Orchestra will perform Lee Johnson's Dead Symphony #6. Anyone fearing the idea of Dead music with strings need not worry. Johnson had a Deadhead friend (doesn’t everybody?) who initiated him into the cult. He really got the Dead's music, which is, of course, rooted in improvisation. Since having a 75-piece symphony improvise is a bad idea, he did the improvising himself in the score, and the result is a take on familiar melodies, with variations, and not a simple new coat of strings.

The CD of the Dead Symphony was much admired, and the live performances, first at the Baltimore Symphony and more recently at the California Symphony (Walnut Creek, CA) and Cabrillo Festival (Santa Cruz, CA) have been similarly praised. Now Johnson's taken the score and given it a final tune-up, so that what will be performed in LaGrange will be the final version. And Johnson will be in the cello section for the performance, too.

Ticket information here.