It’s 1835, and you are inside one of the most beautiful buildings you’ve ever seen.

In front of you – eight dazzling crystal chandeliers drop from a gilded ceiling like a hand-carved series of pillars made of solid hardwoods.  

The violins warm up first. You can hear their strings sizzle with anticipation as the moment moves closer. Then, it’s the cello’s turn. The horns go next. Finally, the percussion instruments put in a couple of reps.

The conductor comes to the stage and bows to the audience – who applauds politely.

These tickets cost you a small fortune – after all, going to the Symphony in the late 19th century is what all of Vienna’s great and good do. Your ticket cost a working man’s weekly wage, but you can tell the night will be worth it.

After all, you have the evening at Vienna’s most prestigious landmark, the Weiner Musikverens, to enjoy something that’s captured the whole towns imagination – this new work by a frenchman called Berlioz. It’s odd – it’s different. No one has ever heard anything like it. Rumor has it he spent most of his days before composing it in an opium den – and it shows through in the music. You can’t wait to find out.

Afterward, you walk home, whistling a tune from the evening’s performance. You felt the manic, depressive moods of the music – a story through sound. The ups, then the deep, dark downs. Joy and despair.

Now, you are back in the present. A lot has changed in almost 200 years, but men and women like The Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra’s (NFSO) conductor, Todd Craven, hope to bring that same experience to locals in Niceville and beyond. Especially if they are looking for unique things to do besides going to the beach in Destin.

The Symphony Orchestra’s season-opening weekend contains three different concerts that hope to use the music of the talented composer Hector Berlioz to hook children, parents and already-dedicated symphony fans into this years concert répetoire.

“Classical music – it’s not for everyone, but it is for anyone,” Craven said.

The music from this concert is different in sound from the ‘classical music many people have heard before. It’s what famous composer Leonard Bernstein once called ‘the first-ever piece of musical psychedelia.’ Kind of a 19th-century Jefferson Airplane experience.

“This five-movement Symphony was actually inspired by a opium-induced fantasy. Berlioz overdid it a bit in the opium den, and this piece kind of poured out of him,” Craven said with a wry smile.

The music is perfectly spooky for the Halloween season. It’s a piece of music that, paired with season festivities in October and the Symphony’s educational concerts directed toward children – could draw families to the doors of the Mattie Kelly and widen the audience for orchestral music on the Emerald Coast.

“People have been saying now, for decades literally, that classical music audiences are dying out. Well, I don’t think that’s true,” said Craven, “The cycle somehow renews. People, if they are exposed to it early on in life, if they’ve taken a hiatus, the typically find their way back in mid-life or later. I think it’s a seed that gets planted. And that’s why these education concerts are so crucial. Because, I think that just one positive experience of hearing classical music or hearing that orchestra can plant that seed.”

Adapting the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra for Modern Audiences

While the Symphony is primarily a sonic experience, that doesn’t prevent the orchestra from innovating on the visual side of things.

Among the mannequins and finished suits in her workshop, Tess Stackpoole runs fabric through a sewing machine. The artist creates visual works to accompany Berlioz’s music during the Halloween concert. Typically, she’s making pieces for the theatrical productions Northwest Florida State College and the Mattie Kelly create yearly. Now, she’s applying her innovative approach to costume-making to the Symphony’s production, too.

“We have a certain costume coming out from a certain artist you might recognize. Be on the lookout for a certain white jumpsuit and – maybe a wig,” Stackpoole said with a coy grin.

Craven, who’s spent his professional life in orchestral music, says the changes people like Stackpoole bring make sense in the modern music world.

“That gives me hope,” Craven said, “I think the art form, it has to shift, it has to become less traditional – less stodgy. The concert hall has to become a welcoming place.”

The 2024-5 concert season begins on October 12 at 2 PM with a family concert and costume parade. The 7PM show on the same day will play Berlioz’s music and feature a costume contest.

You can see the rest of the schedule and. buy tickets to the show here.