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Come feel the love with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra as we embark on our 2025 Summer Festival Tour. This year’s dynamic program, Summer of Love, features works from across the world and a range of genres, including pieces from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, John Williams’ Star Wars Theme, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, and pop hits such as “I Put A Spell On You” and “Nature Boy.” This summer the VSO welcomes mezzo Nikola Printz as the tour’s special guest vocalist.

Picnic in the concert meadow and enjoy the Oscar- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical score brought to life in concert by a full orchestra, soloists, and chorus, conducted by Christopher Ray. Set in Oklahoma in 1906, the musical depicts a love story between a farm girl and a cowboy and the growing rivalry between the cowboys and local farmers. The musical is the first written by the famous duo of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, and features well-loved tunes including “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin” and “Oklahoma”.

The 2025-26 season opens with one of the world’s leading tabla virtuosos, Grammy Award-winning musician Sandeep Das, a 21-year member of the Silk Road Ensemble and collaborator with Paquito D’Rivera, Bobby McFerrin, and Yo-Yo Ma amongst others. VSO also welcomes guest sitarist Rajib Karmakar to start the concert with the first movement of pioneering composer Ravi Shankar’s Symphony. Das follows with Sri Lankan/Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne’s brilliant Tabla Concerto, a three movement exploration of baroque, electronica, folk, and romantic styles. The concert completes its East/West connection with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a hugely popular, sweeping work masterfully orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. The piece gives a distinct musical voice to visual art and shows the full colors and virtuosity of the orchestra.

The 2025-26 season opens with one of the world’s leading tabla virtuosos, Grammy Award-winning musician Sandeep Das, a 21-year member of the Silk Road Ensemble and collaborator with Paquito D’Rivera, Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma amongst others. VSO also welcomes guest sitarist Rajib Karmakar to start the concert with the first movement of pioneering composer Ravi Shankar’s Symphony. Das follows with Sri Lankan/Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne’s brilliant Tabla Concerto, a three movement exploration of baroque, electronica, folk, and romantic styles. The concert completes its East/West connection with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a hugely popular, sweeping work masterfully orchestrated by Maurice Ravel. The piece gives a distinct musical voice to visual art and shows the full colors and virtuosity of the orchestra.

The natural world underscores VSO’s second concert at the Flynn in October, with birdsong, thunder, moonlight, and mushrooms as influence for a breadth of compositions. William Grant Still’s Wood Notes is inspired by the rich nature of the American South, and Chelsea Komschlies’ piece Mycelialore makes musical connections between fungal and neural networks in a piece commissioned by the League of American Orchestra’s Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program. The second half presents Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale”, a bucolic hymn to the countryside and nature. From stillness to dancing, and bird calls to storms, Beethoven’s ability to incorporate rural life in musical form is exemplified in the four movements of this work.

Celebrate December with the VSO’s festive music and a visit from Santa! Join Music Director Andrew Crust, guest singers, and your Vermont Symphony Orchestra for a concert that delivers a joyful mood for the season. Enjoy favorites like Sleigh Ride and selections from The Nutcracker, a new commission by Vermont composer Michael Schachter inspired by a Jewish folktale, a rousing audience holiday sing-a-long, a musical reading of selections from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and more!

The annual free community concert this season features selections from Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major, Debussy’s Gymnopedies, Ravel’s Bolero, and Frostiana, a setting of Robert Frost’s poems in a seven-movement suite of choral art songs with chamber orchestra by Randall Thompson. The evening also features the world premiere of a new piece by a Music-COMP student. Conducted by VSO Music Director Andrew Crust.

On Valentine’s Day, VSO welcomes Grammy Award-winning violinist Jennifer Koh to perform Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 1 in an eclectic concert mixing American and Romantic music. A student of VSO’s fourth music director Jaime Laredo, Koh is a hugely in-demand performer of contemporary violin repertoire with premieres of more than 100 works composed especially for her. Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 1, one of the composer’s most often performed works, is preceded by Frank Zappa’s fast-paced, riveting piece from his 1993 album The Yellow Shark. For the romantic at heart, lush orchestral suites from Georges Bizet’s Carmen and music by 19th C. French composer Augusta Holmès complete the afternoon concert.