2020 is a year of monumental milestones at the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. Celebrating their 30th Anniversary, the ACO enters its third decade of performing classical music from time-honored great masters and today's emerging young artists along the Treasure Coast. In 1989, founder Andrew McMullan started with a dream and a vision which in turn has became a reality, delighting audiences from Vero Beach to Palm Beach Gardens.

The Atlantic Classical Orchestra is in good company, as 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the infamous Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday. One of the most widely recognized and greatest composers of all time, Beethoven served as a bridge between the Classical and Romantic era styles. Since his death, Beethoven has become an icon of the Romatic period having influenced many other Romantic composers after him, as well as popular culture today.

The 2020 Atlantic Classical Orchestra Masterworks Series will feature a work by Beethoven on each of its programs. January begins where Beethoven began with his Symphony No. 1. While this symphony pays tribute to his esteemed predecessors, Mozart and Hayden, the beginning of Beethoven's own compositional style was very apparent, making the Viennese of the time sit up and take notice.

In February, the ACO brings Elena Urioste to the stage performing the only concerto Beethoven ever wrote for violin. In Beethoven's Violin Concerto, he rewrote the rules for what a violin concerto could be. It is grand in scale and continues to be the Everest of concertos two centuries after it was written.

Beethoven wrote just one opera, with at least five overtures, of which only four remain. Leonore, which would later be renamed Fidelio, received a new overture each time it was revived during Beethoven's lifetime. In March, the ACO will perform Leonore Overture No. 3. When originally performed, it was considered to have given away too much of the plot and was ultimately replaced with another overture. This moving, expansive, and dramatic piece may be the opera's loss but is certainly the symphony's gain.

The ACO closes out it's celebratory season with Beethoven's rollicking Symphony No. 7, which Richard Wagner declared "...The Symphony is the Apotheosis of the Dance itself: it is Dance in its highest aspect..." Filled with elements of dance and rhythm, this is a symphony the audience will feel through body and soul.

To learn more about the 2020 Season at the ACO and more about Beethoven, visit AtanticClassicalOrchestra.com. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the Box Office at 772-460-0851.

Arrive 45 minutes prior to each performance for exciting insights into the evening's program with Maestro David Amado.

Catch the ACO All Season Long in Vero Beach

January 7 ~ February 18. &. March 3 ~ April 7

at the Community Church of Vero Beach at 7:30pm