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This festive concert features strains of Mediterranean/Hispanic culture, dance music and rousing good times, with a healthy dose of virtuosity thrown in. Our own Jason Lin steps out in front of the orchestra to play one of the best violin concertos of 19th century France, inspired by the exotic music of Spain.

Redwood Symphony is delighted to begin its fifth decade by celebrating the 100th birthday of – and with – our friend, Kirke Mechem, featuring his “The Jayhawk, Magic Bird Overture!” The orchestra is also celebrating the power of virtuosity and showmanship with two superstar vehicles: Prokofiev’s powerful Second Piano Concerto with Daniel Glover and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Redwood Symphony is thrilled to present this concert, as well as the following one on April 18. Both concerts feature works that are not very well-known but are masterpieces of wide-ranging styles. The concert opener by rising star composer

Redwood Symphony presents three unique musical visions, grand and intimate. Respighi’s spectacular arrangement of Bach’s organ work is perhaps the best of its kind. I’m thrilled that Kindra Sharich is joining us, so soon after our 2024-25 triumph in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony! This time, it’s Mahler at his most personal, prophetic and heartbreaking: Songs on the Death of Children, sung with projected supertitles. Finally, Maestro Eric returns to a work that he believes is the great Polish composer’s magnum opus; it’s unlike anything you’ve heard before and it’s truly wonderful.

Redwood Symphony’s third Sondheim show in concert, after previous productions of Sweeney Todd and our recent Follies. This will be the West Coast premiere of a brand new opera orchestra-sized arrangement by the show’s original orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick. These performances will include the entire wonderfully literate and witty show, with dialogue and clowns (we’re sending in all of them!).

Prokofiev’s merry klezmer romp sets the stage for Timo Andres’ imaginative reframing of a problematic Mozart concerto. Mozart didn’t notate large swaths of the left hand part. Mr. Andres filled in the missing parts as if a live performance was suddenly hijacked by a rogue left hand from the 21 st century, with strange and beautiful results .Beethoven’s First Symphony, written when he was just 30, may seem traditional when compared to the eight ground-breaking symphonies that followed, but the First was conceived very calculatedly as a calling card to the Vienna establishment. The First was in the best tradition of the late Mozart and Beethoven’s current teacher, Haydn, while demonstrating just enough independence and slightly shocking “modernity” to attract key Viennese patronage. And it still delights, 226 years later!