In just a few days, a performance that existed for one evening inside Thalia Mara Hall will travel across Mississippi. On September 3, Mississippi Public Broadcasting will share the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Star Wars Symphony, recorded live during our 2025–2026 Season of Genius.
Listeners will hear the unmistakable music of John Williams performed by Mississippi’s largest performing arts organization. Behind every note, however, is something equally meaningful to us: a partnership built on patience, respect and a shared belief that this moment was worth preserving. For that, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra is deeply grateful.
Not since 2012, when MSO joined the Mississippi Mass Choir and Mississippi Girlchoir at Thalia Mara Hall for A Concert in Tribute to Medgar Evers, has MPB shared an MSO performance in this way. Returning orchestral performances to statewide public broadcasting fourteen years later required far more than mutual enthusiasm. It took years of conversation and careful work involving production, artistic considerations, media rights and protections for the professional musicians whose performances make these broadcasts possible.
At many points, it would have been easier to decide that recording a professional orchestra was simply too complicated. MPB did not. MPB stayed with us.
That patience matters. Professional orchestral recordings are governed by agreements designed to protect the artists who create the music while also allowing orchestras to use media for education, promotion, audience development and public access. Finding the right balance requires care, consultation and time. MPB understood that those protections were not obstacles to the work, but part of doing the work responsibly. In doing so, MPB demonstrated something fundamental: preservation should honor the art being preserved.
That understanding reflects what Mississippi Public Broadcasting has done so well for generations. MPB does more than transmit programming; it recognizes the people, stories and moments that deserve to be carried forward. Its work has documented the voices and legacies of Eudora Welty, Walter Anderson, Medgar Evers, Bobby Rush and so many others, helping to establish an extraordinary cultural record of Mississippi.
We are honored that the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra is now part of that continuing story at such an important moment in our own history. This year, more than eight decades of artistic achievement, education and service were recognized when MSO received the Governor’s Arts Award for Excellence in Performing Arts. MPB has captured the orchestra in that moment. Our responsibility now is to ensure there is a future worthy of that legacy, and MPB’s commitment helps us do exactly that.
Through a significant investment of people, equipment, production expertise, post-production, promotion and statewide broadcast resources, MPB captured five performances from our Season of Genius. Those performances can now reach Mississippians who could not be in the concert hall, introduce new listeners to the orchestra and open a door to experiencing live orchestral music for themselves.
When Star Wars Symphony airs on September 3, listeners will hear the orchestra beautifully. They will not see the Stormtroopers patrolling Thalia Mara Hall, the droids moving through the lobby or children and adults raising light sabers as though they might conduct the score themselves. They will not see Jackson’s mayor put on a mask and welcome an audience back to a beloved performance hall with the unforgettable line, “Luke, I am your Mayor.”
The microphones were never meant to capture all of that. What they captured was the sound of a particular night, in a particular room, created by professional musicians before a live audience. That is what makes live recordings so powerful: they preserve some of the electricity of a moment and allow it to travel farther than the room in which it happened. They can introduce someone to an artist, create curiosity and inspire someone to want to experience the next performance for themselves.
That is the opportunity MPB has given MSO.
As we open our 82nd season, A Season of Excellence, we are grateful that this partnership is not simply a reflection on what has already happened, but a foundation for what comes next. We look forward to continuing to work with Mississippi Public Broadcasting to thoughtfully capture and share performances from the season ahead, expanding access while celebrating the professional musicians, audiences and communities that make this work possible.
To everyone at MPB who helped bring this partnership to life, please accept our sincere thanks. Thank you for believing that Mississippi’s orchestra is part of Mississippi’s story, for recognizing the value of the artists who create this music, for respecting the care required to preserve their work, and for committing the extraordinary reach and resources of public broadcasting to sharing it with more people.
Above all, thank you for doing what Mississippi Public Broadcasting has done so well for generations: recognizing the moments that matter and making certain Mississippi has the opportunity to remember them.
On September 3, the music that filled Thalia Mara Hall will travel across the state. Some listeners will discover the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra for the first time. Others will hear a performance they were fortunate enough to experience in person. And those who were there will hear more than the notes.
We cannot wait to listen alongside Mississippi and, with gratitude, remember:
We were there. MPB was there.
For preserving that moment, extending its reach and helping us invite others into the experiences still to come, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra extends its deepest appreciation.
With appreciation,
Janet Reihle, President & Executive Director
Mississippi Symphony Orchestra
Board of Directors • Musicians • Staff • Audiences