If the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra’s annual Mozart Birthday Bash concert was a person, he could legally, for the first time, buy an alcoholic beverage this year to celebrate.

So let’s collectively raise a toast this local cultural tradition, born shortly before conductor Arie Lipsky first took over A2SO’s podium in 2000.

“It seems like Mozart is almost everybody’s favorite composer,” Lipsky said, “so we just decided to celebrate him every year.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria on January 27, 1756 — that’s 261 years ago, but who’s counting? — and because he wrote more than 600 works in his too-short life (he died in 1791 at age 35), A2SO’s annual showcase never has to worry about repeating itself. READ THE REST HERE