My husband and I have enjoyed going to the New Year’s Eve Pops celebration for the last eight years. We have thoroughly enjoyed each year with the symphony and the wonderful acts they bring to accompany their delightful music. However, this year was different. While we enjoyed the acrobatics and the music itself, we were very disgusted and disappointed in the self interjection of the conductors feelings and thoughts of our president that really had nothing to do with last evenings performance. He not only made a personal reference to his feelings but also lacked the respect of at least addressing him as President Donald Trump and simply referred to him as Donald Trump. The lack of professionalism last night has made us wonder if this is a tradition we would like to continue for the years to come.

New Years Eve performance was awesome! We go every year and are always treated to beautiful music and wonderful acts.This year the conductor made a comment about trump, which a majority of the audience appreciated. Perhaps such political comments should not be inserted into such events, however when we have an administration actively working to defund the arts, I thought it was fair game. Too bad some in the crowd hold the conductor to a higher standard than the president. We will continue to support the symphony and the arts in our area. All the musicians deserve appreciation and respect.Thank you!!

What a fine group of professional musicians. Each year they manage to outdo themselves. This symphony measures up to the best of them. Great talent, and the director is also one of the best.

Are there more historic, impressive symphonies out there? Yes, but this group of individuals provide a great show. If youve never seen them before, check them out ASAP!

Took my family to see the symphony tonight for New Years Eve. The music was great and the accompanying performers were fantastic.I was incredible disgusted by the fact that the conductor felt the need to interject his political comments at one point during the show. This was incredibly unnecessary and had literally no relevance to the performance or the arts in general. This was simply a self important wind bag getting a cheap laugh.Facebook, yepTv, yepMass media, of courseRadio, yepEven these days I expect to get force feed some kind of propaganda when I go to the movies.But I never expected to have someone’s political BS brought up at the Des Moines Symphony. Shame on you, Conductor, for not just letting us have a nice night away from the societal chaos.I may be an uneducated simpleton but, you sir, have no class.

Wonderful symphony! Its incredible that we have a professional orchestra in such a small town. Yet another reason Des Moines is such a gem of a city

We’ve been going to the DSM NYE celebration performance for years. And paid to go to quite a number of other DSM Symphony events over the years too. We’ve seriously thought about being season ticket holders and generous donors. We’ve absolutely enjoyed their performances.Last night’s NYE 2020 DSM symphony performance was wonderful. The Troupe Vertigo performers were spectacular! We were really looking forward to a celebration performance of unity and optimism for the upcoming year. HOWEVER. A moment in last night’s NYE performance negatively changed all that.Half way through the performance, we get a liberal pandering joke from conductor Joseph Giunta about President Donald Trump! We were in absolute shock. Just stunned. Some persons in the audience cheered, and some booed. This conductor must have a lot of anger & hate to pull this off in front of thousands of people. It’s absolutely unnecessary! And we paid for this?! If we wanted real comedy against President Trump. We could have saved our money, stayed home, and watched MSNBC, Comedy Central, etc.What was his gain for being political (that’s for any Democrat or Republican) for such a festive & classy evening? Was he trying to be “cool” and fit in to be political? It was not cool. A comedian perhaps, but from a Symphony Conductor?! We thought perhaps he was apolitical, not political. His move promotes further division, not unity. Sadly, he’s just a typical divider.We always thought that Joseph Giunta was of great class and high character. Absolutely not anymore.

I have always enjoyed listening to the DSM symphony on the 4th of July but was truly disappointed this year. The immigration talking was too much. I dont come to listen to loud talking. There is too much of that already. Save it for a more appropriate time.

I have seen the London Symphony, The Chicago Symphony, and the L.A Philharmonic. Des Moines Symphony trumped all of them in a spectacular show that stole my love orchestral music and rocketed it higher then I ever believed possible!

IDK

Incredibly talented and beautiful sounds of the Des Moines Symphony.