MOBILE —  The Mobile Symphony Orchestra, under Music Director Scott Speck, will celebrate the launch of its newest outreach initiative, the Big Red Ticket program, when it gives away admission to live performances in September.

The program offers every student from Kindergarten through high school, within 3,000 square miles of Mobile, the chance to experience a live performance of orchestral music. Students will receive their vouchers at school.

On Sept. 8, a big red ticket — 6 feet by 12 feet — will be unfurled across the stage while red confetti falls on the winners. The event will take place during the MSO’s rehearsal for its Opening Night performance, which will take place 8 p.m. Rehearsal will begin at 2 p.m. The location is the Saenger Theatre, 6 S. Joachim St., in Mobile.

During the break at 2:45 p.m., the Big Red Ticket celebration will begin.

Once the biggest red ticket is unfurled, thousands of red tickets will drop from the ceiling. The back of each ticket explains that the voucher entitles its bearer to attend — for free — a matinee performance of one of the four concerts offered at the MSO’s Sunday Family Series: Disney Pops (Sept. 23) featuring tunes from such Disney classics as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” “Mary Poppins,” and “Cinderella;” Beethoven and Blue Jeans (Nov. 11), which urges the audience to don their favorite pair of jeans while hearing classical favorites Beethoven, Mozart and Shostakovich; Holiday Pops (Dec. 16), where even Santa will take a break from the rush of the year’s busiest season to enjoy an afternoon of holiday music; and Legendary Love (Feb. 17, 2008), a musical valentine presenting pianist Olga Kern performing a piano concerto, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.  

 “People ask how we can afford to give away this many tickets,” Stephen Hedrick, executive director of the MSO, said. “I reply that, as the leading musical institution in our community, we can’t afford not to. Every child should be given the chance to experience great music.”