The Aiken Symphony will mark Veterans Day with a Pops Series concert next Wednesday evening at the Etherredge Center, pairing a program of patriotic music with an emcee whose own service record reads like a case study in American sacrifice. The Nov. 11 concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Etherredge Center, USC Aiken, 471 University Parkway, and is billed as a tribute honoring U.S. military veterans.
Lowell Koppert, who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, will serve as concert emcee. He received multiple Bronze Stars, Army Commendation Medals and campaign medals during his military career, and after his time in Special Forces, Koppert joined the clandestine services of the U.S. government, according to the Aiken Standard. The orchestra describes the evening as “a tribute honoring the courage, sacrifice, and service of our nation’s heroes,” per Aiken Symphony.
A Program Built Around Service and Sacrifice
Music director and conductor Scott Weiss will lead the orchestra through a program centered on patriotic standards and film scores tied to military history. The lineup includes Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, John Williams's Liberty Fanfare — originally composed for the 1986 rededication of the Statue of Liberty — and selections from Band of Brothers, along with Victory at Sea and Morton Gould's American Salute, itself drawn from the Civil War-era tune When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
The night also folds in John Williams's music from Born on the Fourth of July, a God Bless America and Armed Forces medley, and closes with John Philip Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever, the Aiken Standard's report notes.
Part of a Season Framed Around a National Milestone
The concert falls within the Aiken Symphony's 12th season, a 2026-27 slate themed “Small Town Charm, World Class Music” that opened Oct. 23, according to the station's report. The orchestra is also presenting the season as a nod to America's 250th anniversary, per the symphony's own site. That dual framing — hyper-local identity paired with a national milestone — threads through much of the year's Pops programming, which also includes a Home for the Holidays concert set for Dec. 11.
The Pops Series, which includes the Veterans Day concert, is performed at the Etherredge Center at USC Aiken, while the symphony's Masterworks performances share that same venue across the season, including Northern Lights on Jan. 16, Beethoven's Triple Concerto on Feb. 6, and Brahms & Schumann, Visions of Heaven on May 1. The Chamber Series, by contrast, is staged at the Amentum Center for the Performing Arts and offers reserved seating for all concerts, with a String Theory program scheduled for April 16.
Tickets and Access
Single tickets to the Veterans Day concert cost $45 or $60 depending on seat selection, with active military members eligible for $10 off each ticket and students under 25 eligible for a $5 student rate. Tickets are available through aikensymphony.com or by calling 803-295-0313, the same number listed for discount information, and credit card purchases incur a convenience fee. Buyers can receive tickets as print-at-home, venue pickup one hour before the concert, or mobile tickets.
The Aiken Symphony receives partial funding from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which itself receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Its ensemble draws professional classical instrumentalists from South Carolina and Georgia.
Other Local Tributes to Veterans
The symphony's salute isn't the only local nod to veterans around this time of year. Cedar Creek has held an annual neighborhood salute to veterans around Nov. 7, according to a separate Aiken Standard report, underscoring how the Aiken area marks the holiday beyond a single stage.
