Will ASO get funky when Piedmont Park fills in for Symphony Hall?

The august ensemble will appear Thursday on Oak Hill at Piedmont Park for one of its popular, free outdoor concerts. In addition to familiar orchestral fare, such as Rossini’s overture to “The Barber of Seville” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, the ASO plans to get on the good foot with “I Feel Good,” from James Brown.

"That was supposed to be a surprise," smiled a slightly crestfallen Joseph Young, the ASO's assistant conductor, who will be wielding the baton Thursday. "It got leaked."

The symphony may have been denied the chance to surprise its audience with a soulful encore, but the advance notice could be a good thing. Expectations are raised and the pressure is on. Speaking last week, Young said the symphony still had some time left to learn how to get up for the downstroke.

“We have two more rehearsals to get a little funky.”

Certainly the outdoor shows at Piedmont Park allow the ASO a chance to loosen that black tie. Or do without it completely.

Rather than the tuxedo or long black dress, the attire onstage will be more informal: white shirt, black slacks, or black skirt. No jackets required.

This is wise, since temperatures on Thursday are expected to boil up into the mid-90s. Young is, however, not so easy on himself, insisting on wearing a white dinner jacket for the performance.

He’s done it before, without passing out. “I felt a few times I was on the verge, but I made it through.”

Young grew up in Goose Creek, S.C., north of Charleston, where he played the trumpet until a conducting class at the Governor's School for the Arts set him on a path to the podium.

Young has served previously with the Phoenix Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony. He conducts about 50 concerts a season with the ASO, and is also the music director for the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.

He enjoys the less structured outdoor performances as an opportunity to bring a broader audience to the ASO. When the orchestra plays Piedmont Park (sponsored by Bank of America), he can look out over the audience and see folks relaxing on blankets, sipping cold beverages from coolers, while little kids dance and lightning bugs and stars add an ambient glow.

Also on Thursday's program is an innovative "Concerto for Bass Trombone," by Chris Brubeck, son of the late jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck. The piece features ASO trombonist Brian Hecht negotiating odd-time passages and improvising a considerable cadenza. It's clear that Chris Brubeck is a jazz musician as well as a classical composer, said Young, adding that the composition draws from both worlds.

Young said the trombone isn’t heard often in a concerto setting, and said this “versatile” piece has much to recommend it, including the talented Hecht and a last movement called “James Brown in the Twilight Zone.”

(Is there a pattern here?)

The symphony must adapt when performing outdoors. Inside Symphony Hall, the ensemble performs acoustically. In the park, the orchestra’s sound is reinforced with the help of microphones and amplifiers.

Musicians also use music clips to keep the breeze from taking their staff paper across 10th Street, and canopies, fans and water bottles will keep the players cool (ish) and hydrated.

What about those million-dollar Guarneri violins? Many symphony string musicians have secondary instruments that they use at outdoor concerts so that the heat (and the sweat) don’t damage their primary ax, in which many have made hefty investments. (Brass and woodwind players generally aren’t subject to the same jeopardy.)

So, the musicians know how to keep cool, even when the music is hot. In fact, said Young, “the person who’s going to sweat the most is me.”