Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

Symphony

6/1/2025 - SRS SEASON ENDS WITH RESOUNDING TA-TA-TA-BANG - Terry McNeill
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor
Finishing the 97th season, the Santa Rosa Symphony took a long stride June 1 on its “Road to 100” odyssey in a dramatic concert before an audience of 1,200 in Weill Hall. The “Road to 100” is a celebratory march and marketing slogan set to spotlight the Symphony’s nearly 100 years of concerts, and a...

5/17/2025 - YOUTHFUL VIRTUOSITY ON DISPLAY AT USO'S MAY CONCERTS - Peter Lert
Ukiah Symphony / Phillip Lenberg, conductor. Sungdu Bae, flute; Serena She, violin
The final concert of the Ukiah Symphony's 2024-2025 season featured the winners of the Orchestra's Youth Concerto Competition, for which entrants must be undergraduate student musicians. Winners were flutist Sungdu Bae, a senior at Sonoma State University, and violinist Serena She, a freshman conser...

5/4/2025 - MYSTICAL PLANETS AND LIVELY GERSHWIN ORTIZ AT FINAL SRS CONCERT - Peter Lert
Santa Rosa Symphony / Francesco Lecce-Chong, conductor. Orion Weiss, piano. Young Women's Chorus of San Francisco
For their final concert of the 2024-2025 season the Santa Rosa Symphony programmed, in addition to a contemporary piece by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, two proven crowd pleasers: Gershwin’s 1925 Concerto in F, and Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets, composed during the first World War. These p...

4/27/2025 - VSO'S CONCERT MUSIC OF TIME, MUSIC OF PLACE - Peter Lert
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
The Vallejo Symphony's final concert of the 2024-2025 season was performed April 27 in their usual venue, Vallejo's historic Empress Theater. Built in 1911 as one of the first small “movie palaces” in northern California, it went through various incarnations before being lovingly restored, complete ...

2/23/2025 - TWO FORMIDABLE SYMPHONIES AND PURPLE MOUNTAINS AT SRS CONCERT - Peter Lert
Santa Rosa Symphony / Frencesco Lecce-Chong, conductor; Joyce Yang, piano
The Santa Rosa Symphony's February 23 concert included works from three distinct periods. Chinese American composer Shuyung Li’s Purple Mountains, premiered in 2023, while Brahms’ E Minor Symphony was first heard in 1885. Fitting between them was Leonard Bernstein's second, titled Age of Anxiety, ...

1/19/2025 - EARTHLY PLEASURES AT THE VALLEJO SYMPHONY - Peter Lert
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
It’s refreshing to see a resurgence in performances of the works of Mahler. Once the province only of major metropolitan orchestras, it’s now increasingly common to find Mahler symphonies on the programs of smaller regional (and, in some cases, even volunteer community) orchestras. One such professi...

1/19/2025 - EARTHLY PLEASURES AT THE VALLEJO SYMPHONY - Abby Wasserman
Vallejo Symphony / Marc Taddei conductor
At a pre-performance talk January 19 the Vallejo Symphony’s conductor Marc Taddei addressed an early-bird Empress Theater audience with tales of two composers, Haydn and Mahler. He characterized the program we were about to hear as “two approaches to our place in Nature.” He termed Haydn’s Symphon...