A packed house gathered in the Whitehead Auditorium to watch a “frightful” themed concert from the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. The event took place on Saturday Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. 

The musicians and the audience came dressed head to toe in various costumes to celebrate the Halloween spirit. A cosplay competition occurred during intermission and over 40 people competed on stage. People of all ages came dressed and ready to win gift card prizes. 

The orchestra played songs from “Jaws,” “Psycho” and “Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” The audience joined the last song and sang “Monster Mash” alongside the orchestra.  

Dr. Howard Hsu, the music director for VSU, enjoyed the process of programing the event, yet found struggle in choosing the perfect pieces that complement each other. 

“Putting together the program itself was not too difficult, basically I had too many options,” said Dr. Hsu. “There were so many great scary music pieces that the challenge actually comes when you put them together.” 

Students, faculty and professionals came together to create the VSO.  

Dr. Hsu had to plan the concert regarding the other theater and football programs happening. When he realized that it would fall on the weekend before Halloween, he thought it would be best to have the cosplay competition.  

“This one happened to fall just right before Halloween,” said Dr. Hsu. “I thought this could be really fun. Everybody gets dressed up for Halloween and we had done a cosplay competition last season, and that was such a huge hit.” 

He hoped that the audience would feel more easygoing than compared to other formal concerts.  

“It’s going to be more relaxed,” he said. “We want you to come and enjoy the music.” 

Before the concert, Dr. Hsu hosted a pre-concert event to meet with people who had questions or wanted to learn more about the music. During the concert, there was a PowerPoint presentation describing each song: the release date, length, origin and significance.  

The VSO will have three other concerts in the Spring of 2025. Blue Jeans and Beethoven, Awakening and the Byron Stripling and Carmen Bradford.  

Story and photo by Jenna Arnold, Editor-in-Chief.