Plans for Symphony No. 8

Many of you have made generous contributions toward the extra added expenses of multiple soloists and choirs for our forthcoming performance of Mahler's massive Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand").

Unfortunately, we were not able to pull all of the necessary forces together for MahlerFest XVIII next January. The main problem is that the choruses that we would like to employ all have busy Christmas holiday schedules, and do not have the time to prepare such a large work for a January performance (at least not for January 2005). When we performed this work for MahlerFest VIII in 1995, we were fortunate that the choral groups that we used had all just performed the work the previous August in Aspen, so that lengthy preparation during the Christmas season was not necessary.

However, we will definitely perform the Eighth at a future MahlerFest, even if it is necessary to postpone the performance to later in the spring in order to enlist the choral forces we would like to have. So your contributions that were ear-marked for the Eighth Symphony will remain sequestered for this purpose. We can't say at this time just which MahlerFest will see the performance of this symphony, but rest assured that when we do it, your generous support for the Symphony No. 8 performance will definitely be used for that purpose.

The present plan is that MahlerFest XIX in January 2006 will be our performance of Das Lied von der Erde, with a special internationally-renowned guest soloist (for which many of you have also made special donations). So if all goes as planned, the earliest that we would be able to schedule the Eighth Symphony would be MahlerFest XX in January 2007. So please bear with us, and enjoy Mahler's other great music in the meantime. And yes, we are still soliciting special donations toward the extra expense of these special performances.

Thanks for your support and understanding.

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