Austin Symphony Orchestra Cancels Performance Due to Extreme Heat

Austin Symphony Orchestra performing on the Fourth of July in 2015. This year, extreme heat has meant the cancellation of three shows in their annual free Hartman Foundation Concerts in the Park series. (Photo by John Anderson)

Texas' heat wave strikes again. For the third time this year, the Austin Symphony Orchestra has had to cancel one of the Hartman Foundation Concerts in the Park series of shows: This time, it's tonight's scheduled performance by its brass quintet.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the free series on the Long Center City Terrace, funded by a gift from the Hartman Family Foundation. However, so far this year, ASO has been forced to cancel three of the five scheduled weekly free concerts (the wind ensemble on June 12, the string quartet on June 19, and tonight's show featuring the brass quintet). Only two performances have gone ahead as planned (the brass quintet on June 5 and the wind double ensemble on June 26).

ASO had already pushed the start times for the concerts back from 7:30pm to 8pm in hopes of avoiding the worst of the heat, with the aim that the air temperature would be below 95 degrees by the start of the show. However, with the forecast showing temperatures still over 100 by 8pm tonight, ASO has canceled the event completely.

So far, the plan is to continue with the next scheduled show, a performance by the wind quartet next Sunday, July 17, and the rest of the series, running through August 28.