The New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO) will launch its 2025-26 Concert Season with Gustav Holst’s epic The Planets paired with Gabriella Smith’s dynamic Tumblebird Contrails on Sunday, September 28 at 3:00 p.m. at Woolsey Hall in downtown New Haven. Led by Music Director Perry So, the orchestra will be joined by the Elm City Girls’ Choir and acclaimed Connecticut poets Aaron Jafferis, Yexandra Diaz, Shawn Douglas, and Journey Rosa to collaborate on this cosmic musical journey.
Maestro So says, “Music has aspired to make audible the heavenly spheres since time immemorial. We’re kicking off the new season with one of the most spectacular and memorable musical attempts to bring the vastness and beauty of outer space to us – Holst’s The Planets. Beyond simply being musical portraits of distant balls of gas and rock, Holst uses the planets to explore ideas close to home: war and peace, joy and old age.”
Holst’s sweeping The Planets has captured audiences for over a century with its evocative depictions of the planets of the solar system—from the ominous rhythms of Mars, the Bringer of War to the ethereal chorus of Neptune, the Mystic. In this performance, each planet will be introduced by original poetic invocations curated by Hip-hop poet and playwright Aaron Jafferis. The finale will feature the Elm City Girls’ Choir, whose voices will lend an otherworldly aura to Holst’s mystical conclusion.
The concert will open with Gabriella Smith’s Tumblebird Contrails, Smith’s sonic love letter to the Earth. Inspired by the sounds of ocean waves, birds, and wind, Smith’s music channels both exuberance and environmental consciousness, reminding listeners of the beauty of our planet—the one celestial body missing from Holst’s suite. Praised by the New York Times for her “rousing energy and torrents of joy,” Smith has emerged as one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary classical music and has gained recognition for her use of music in climate change activism.
This concert is sponsored by Shipman & Goodwin, Frontier, and the New Haven Register.
Tickets and Subscriptions
To purchase tickets, click here or call (203) 693-1486.
Ticket prices range from $15 – 79. Tickets for youth under 18 are free with the purchase of an adult ticket. Active military and immediate family receive free admission to all performances. College students are $10.
Meet the Featured Artists
The Elm City Girls’ Choir (ECGC) has earned a reputation as one of America’s finest youth choirs. Founded in 1993, ECGC is an elite program, which provides unique performance opportunities and conservatory-level training in vocal technique, musicianship, and conducting for choristers of prodigious talent. ECGC has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Walt Disney World, and has recorded with artists including Yale Schola Cantorum, The Whiffenpoofs of Yale, Peter Eldridge, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. The group has appeared on live national television with Diana Ross and has completed concert tours of Italy, England, Canada, Mexico, and China.
Aaron Jafferis is a hip-hop poet and playwright whose musicals The Ones, Trigger, (Be)longing, Stuck Elevator, How to Break, Kingdom, Shakespeare: The Remix, and No Lie have won a Creative Capital Award, Richard Rodgers Award, Sundance Institute / Time Warner Fellowship, NEA Art Works Grant, NEFA National Theatre Project Grant, Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, Barbour Playwright’s Award, NYMF Most Promising New Musical Award, and multiple MacDowell Fellowships. A former Open Rap Slam champion at the National Poetry Slam Championships, Aaron founded The Word poetry-in-the-schools program in New Haven, and teaches hip-hop theatre for liberation in schools, colleges, and organizations nationwide. Learn more at www.aaronjafferis.com.
Yexandra ‘Yex’ Diaz is a multi-disciplinary artist and professional whose oeuvre is her sobering expression of what it is to exist in a world of resistance, resilience, and revolution during a new era of renaissance rooted in healing. Chicago born and New Haven raised, the polarizing reality of oppression juxtaposed alongside privilege inspires Yex, an Oral Narrator to employ the art of spoken word as a vehicle for messages that raise awareness around social and environmental injustices. She has graced stages from the historic Shubert Theatre to the August Wilson Cultural Center, touring and opening for icons such as two-time Grammy Award Winner J. Ivy. A Last Poets Legacy Member, multi-regional slam champion and former member who helped lead the Connecticut Slam Team to its recent Championship, Yex’s voice moves with urgency, tenderness, and fire.
Shawn Douglas is a New Haven high school student, who most recently competed at the 2025 CT Youth Slam and 2025 Brave New Voices, an annual international poetry festival and competition.
Journey Rosa is an award-winning poet, actor, and student from New Haven. They are the 2025 Connecticut Youth Grand Slam Champion and a three-time statewide poetry award winner, with work recognized for its urgency, emotional depth, and bold voice. Currently a student at the Sound School in New Haven, Journey has performed for audiences ranging from slam stages to state officials, where their spoken word highlights issues of equity, identity, and resilience. Beyond poetry, Journey is also dedicated to theater and performance, continually exploring the intersection of storytelling and activism.
