The Ozark Festival Orchestra will open its 47th season of concerts in Monett at 3 p.m. on Oct. 18, at the Monett High School Performing Arts Center. 

Under the baton of music director Carla Wootton, the OFO will perform under the theme, “America 250: Heritage from the Heartland.” 

Players began rehearsals Sept. 8 and continue on Tuesday evenings. 

The concert season will also have concerts on Dec. 13 celebrating the music of Christmas, the annual Young Artists concert on Feb. 28, and the annual Marty Beckwith Memorial Pops Concert on April 18. All concerts will be at the Monett High School Performing Arts Center. 

The first concert will feature the first great American symphony by the country’s first internationally known performer, “A Night In The Tropics,” the Symphony No. 1 by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Other works will be by Aaron Copland and John Philip Sousa, plus an arrangement of “America the Beautiful” and dance music. Jessica Hall, the OFO’s principal percussionist, will switch to the piano to play a movement from Russian composer Dmitri Kabalevsky’s Piano Concerto No. 3. 

Admission to all OFO concerts will be $10 for adults, free to children high school age and younger. Monett High School, 1 David Sippy Drive, is located off East Cleveland Avenue (Business Hwy. 60) at the east end of the city, next to Price Cutter Supermarket. 

Mike and Marty Scabarozi of Monett are sponsors for this concert. 

The OFO is a community orchestra composed of players from southwest Missouri and nearby towns, focusing primarily on classical music. The orchestra is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization supported by sponsors, memberships, local foundations, ads in the orchestra program book, and funds managed by the Monett Community Foundation. 

Additional information is available at www.ozarkfestivalorchestra.org or the Ozark Festival Orchestra Facebook page.