Augusta Symphony puts “New Voices” on the Miller Theater calendar for March 20

Dirk Meyer leads Barber, Grieg and a piano concerto with guest Jeffrey Biegel in a Masterworks night on Broad Street next spring.

Five months is a long way out for a Saturday night, but anyone who plans their spring around the orchestra now has a date to circle. The Augusta Symphony has put New Voices on the books for Saturday, March 20, 2027, at the Miller Theater, with doors at 6:30 p.m. and the downbeat at 7:30 p.m.

The concert is part of the symphony's Piedmont Augusta Masterworks Series, according to the Miller Theater's own event page, and it went on the calendar Oct. 16. Music director Dirk Meyer is on the podium.

The program, as listed, opens with Samuel Barber's overture to *The School for Scandal* and closes with Grieg's *Peer Gynt* suite. In between sits a piano concerto with guest soloist Jeffrey Biegel at the keyboard, the piece that gives the night much of its reason to exist. Barber and Grieg are the bookends a lot of people will come for; the concerto in the middle is the part worth staying curious about.

That shape, a familiar overture, a featured soloist and a big Romantic finish, is the backbone of a Masterworks evening, and it suits the room. The Miller holds about 1,300, which is big enough to feel like an occasion and small enough that a solo piano line still reaches the back of the house without strain. For a city that has spent years getting used to having a restored downtown theater as the orchestra's home, a Saturday in March on Broad Street is about as Augusta as a night out gets.

This is the symphony's 72nd season. Season subscriptions have been on sale since June through AugustaSymphony.com and the Miller Theater box office, so subscribers already hold seats for this one. Single tickets run through the Miller Theater, which is also the place to check for any changes between now and March.

Meyer has been the face of the orchestra for a while now, and the symphony has leaned on him to shape seasons that mix the warhorses with something its audience hasn't heard. This summer the orchestra noted he had picked up an arts and entertainment award, a small sign of how much the city has come to associate the symphony with the man holding the baton.

Barber and Grieg are the bookends; the concerto in the middle is the part worth staying curious about.

A few practical notes. Doors open an hour before the music, which is enough time to find a seat without rushing and to read the program before the lights go down. The concert falls just after the start of spring, when downtown dinner reservations fill quickly on a Saturday, so it pays to book a table early if you want to eat nearby first. And if a full subscription isn't in the cards, this is a reasonable single night to build an evening around: one overture you may half-recognize, one soloist you may not, and a finish that sends people out humming.

March feels far off from the first week of November. It won't by the time the lobby lights come up.

Sources: Miller Theater: New Voices – Augusta Symphony (millertheateraugusta.com); Augusta Symphony: Maestro Dirk Meyer Receives Arts Entertainment Award (June 2026) (augustasymphony.com); Augusta Symphony: Music Director (augustasymphony.com); Ckord: New Voices, Mar 20, 2027 (app.ckord.com)