left to right: Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., Gerald Davis, M.D., and Theodore Marcy, M.D., M.P.H.

(DECEMBER 24, 2022) The Green Mountain Mahler Festival, founded in 2002 by pulmonologist Daniel Weiss, M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine, continued what has become an annual New Year’s tradition with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on January 1 at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, the Barre–Montpelier Times Argus reported.

The Green Mountain Mahler Festival is a local 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to bringing large-scale orchestral and choral music to local musicians and audiences. As part of their activities, they hold an annual New Year’s Day benefit performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, with all proceeds going to local, national, or international charities. This year, the New Year’s Day event raised $4,000 for the Vermont Foodbank.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been one of history’s most celebratory pieces of music throughout its history, since its premiere in Vienna in 1824. Perhaps most notable was when Leonard Bernstein conducted the work—replacing the “Ode to Joy” with the “Ode to Freedom”—with an international orchestra and chorus celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Vermont, the Green Mountain Mahler Festival has presented the work every New Year’s Day for more than a dozen years.