Conductor

Join us for an inspiring showcase of young talent at the Young Composers Full Orchestra event, presented by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. This special event is set to take place at the Leo Rich Theater on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 2:00 pm. Admission is free, offering a unique opportunity for everyone to experience the creativity and dedication of the student participants from the Young Composers Project.

The Young Composers Festival is the highlight of the year, celebrating the hard work and achievements of these talented young musicians. It provides a platform for student composers to have their original compositions performed live by the esteemed Tucson Symphony Orchestra. This event not only allows the students to hear their works brought to life but also to receive valuable feedback from professional musicians, teachers, and the esteemed Maestro José Luis Gomez. It's a moment of pride and joy as they present their compositions to an audience for the very first time.

Students from the Advanced Class will have the privilege of hearing their pieces performed by the full orchestra. After the initial performance, the student composers will have the chance to give their input on the rendition, leading to a second performance that will be recorded for their personal portfolio.

The event is part of the Tucson Convention Center's calendar and will adhere to the clear bag policy and travel info policies of the Leo Rich Theater, consistent with those at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

Don't miss this extraordinary celebration of young musical talent and creativity. Secure your free tickets now and be part of a memorable afternoon with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the future stars of classical music.

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Young Composers Full Orchestra

Tucson Convention Center

Yo-Yo Ma returns! One of the most important artists of our time, Yo-Yo Ma’s musicianship and soulful playing are unmatched. He has performed for audiences around the world and is a true ambassador for both music and humanity.

Ma strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity. A UN Messenger of Peace, he has partnered with communities and institutions across the globe to develop programs advocating for a more human-centered world. He is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize the National Medal of the Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Kennedy Center Honors, the Polar Music Prize, and the Birgit Nilsson Prize.

Come feel the joy, the magic, and the emotion, at this very special one-night-only concert.

Yo-Yo Ma

Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

The Young Composers Festival marks the culmination of a year of hard work and dedication from the student participants of the Young Composers Project. This event is an opportunity for the student composers to have their original scores performed by the musicians of The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, receive comments from musicians, teachers and Maestro José Luis Gomez, and to present their works to the concert audience for the first time.

Young Composers Strings & Winds

Tucson Symphony Center

Young Composers Strings & Brass

Join us for Colorado Springs Philharmonic Pre-Concert talks. Go behind the curtain and inside the score with these 30-minute pre-concert conversations.

New World Symphony

Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts

Ignite your senses and surrender to the intoxicating allure of young love. Set against the backdrop of Paris, a group of bohemian artists find solace and comradery in their shared dreams. In their frosty attic, a chance encounter ignites a romance between the seamstress Mimì and the poet Rodolfo. Their love flourishes in winter’s chill…yet as winter gives way to spring, the realities of the world begin to cast a shadow over their idyllic affair. In the face of adversity, Mimì and Rodolfo must confront the painful truth that like the seasons, some love affairs must come to an end.

La bohème

Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts

The 2024–2025 season opens with Tchaikovsky’s powerful and tragically final musical utterance, most likely a declaration of forbidden love—the sixth symphony, “Pathétique.” The rising French star David Fray makes his TSO debut with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, and the TSO introduces the highly engaging music of the recent Chicago Symphony composer-in residence, Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour.

Mozart And Tchaikovsky

The Masterworks season opens with the TSO’s beloved concertmaster Lauren Roth performing Beethoven’s sublime Violin Concerto, a dramatic showpiece written during one of the most creative periods in the composer’s life. Antonio Sarrier’s Symphony in D from the 18th century was long-lost until its discovery in an archive in Mexico. Schubert’s dynamic third symphony continues the TSO’s journey to survey the composer’s full symphonic output.

Lauren Roth Plays Beethoven

Catalina Foothills High School

The titan of the classical music world returns! Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, one of four versions for his only opera Fidelio, this one including the famous offstage trumpet signal, is followed by the ta-ta-ta-da opening of the fifth symphony. There’s no better sound than the TSO filling the Music Hall with the unparalleled might of the Fifth. Bartók’s elegant and strongly folk-music influenced Concerto for Orchestra is one of his most popular works and with good reason‍—the orchestra sections become the soloists, showing off their virtuosic abilities.

Beethoven’s Fifth

Bursting with charm and charisma, The Three Mexican Tenors take you on a journey from operatic songs like “Libiamo” and “O Sole Mio” to pop hits such as “You Raise Me Up” and “Time to Say Goodbye.” The Three Mexican Tenors then pay tribute to the great singers of Mexico: Luis Miguel, Juan Gabriel, Vicente Fernandez, and more!

An Enchanted Evening With The Three Mexican Tenors

The greatest living violinist returns for a special one-night only performance of iconic violin solos from the movies. Beloved for his charm and humanity, he is treasured by audiences worldwide for his remarkable artistry and irrepressible joy for making music. Don’t miss the iconic John Williams melody from Schindler’s List and many other favorites.

An Evening At The Movies With Itzhak Perlman

One of the brightest stars on the operatic stage and a Tucson favorite, internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to the TSO for a riveting performance of Mahler’s colossal third symphony. Organized over six movements, the work is the composer’s hymn to nature and one of his most complete musical statements.

Mahler’s Third

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns for a second Mahler turn! The Metropolitan Opera star will perform a selection from the composer’s five-song cycle based on the work of Friedrich Rückert. The brilliant young composer Chelsea Komschlies’ new work, a TSO commission through the League of American Orchestras Toulmin Commissions Program, has its world premiere. Maestro Gomez continues his Schumann cycle with the composer’s Symphony No. 3, the “Rhenish,” and Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful, rarely-played Ballade complete the program.

Mahler And Schumann

Paul Huang, who left TSO audiences spellbound in 2022, returns to perform Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, originally written for the composer’s friend, violinist Joseph Joachim. The concerto is accompanied by two of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. Written originally for piano duo while he was still relatively unknown, it was these dances that helped Dvořák achieve notoriety. Dvořák came to the U.S. later in life and wrote the New World Symphony, inspired by African-American spirituals. The concert’s second half features works by American composers with very different backgrounds: a TSO co-commissioned work by Arizona-born Raven Chacon, a 2023 MacArthur Genuis Grant awardee, and Still’s Symphony No. 1, known as the “Afro-American.” Chacon, a member of the Navajo nation, draws on relationships between the western and indigenous communities while Still drew from popular African-American music.

Dvořák And The American Experience

Prokofiev’s classic Peter and the Wolf makes a welcome return. Originally written for a young audience, the piece has long delighted audiences of all ages. The TSO was highly impressed by Xavier Muzik’s work through the 2022 Earshot collaboration with the American Composers Orchestra, and immediately commissioned this new work having its world premiere. Mussorgsky’s stormy Night on Bald Mountain, inspired by the Russian legend of revels taking place on St. John’s Eve is followed by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, often thought of as his most classical. Though small in scale and length, it is full of the composer’s characteristic irony and wit.

Prokofiev’s Peter And The Wolf

Carl Orff’s singular and powerful work, bringing to life texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, comes to the stage with soloists Ashley Fabian, Joseph Tancredi, and Octavio Moreno plus the full might of the TSO Chorus. Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, which plays tribute to the blue deer, a spiritual guide of the Huichol people of Mexico, is followed by Robert Muczynski’s Symphonic Memoir, premiered by the TSO in 1979 and the latest in the TSO’s exploration of this Tucson-based composer.

José Luis Gomez

Conductor

Events

May 4, 2024

Young Composers Full Orchestra · Tucson Symphony Orchestra

May 9, 2024

Yo-Yo Ma · Tucson Symphony Orchestra

10 - 11 May, 2024

Young Composers Strings & Winds · Tucson Symphony Orchestra

May 11, 2024

Young Composers Strings & Brass · Tucson Symphony Orchestra

18 - 19 May, 2024

New World Symphony · Colorado Springs Philharmonic

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