From Wagner’s ghostly ship to the fiery brilliance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, this concert soars through myth, magic, and the natural world. Wagner’s electrifying Overture to The Flying Dutchman tells the storm-tossed tale of a ghostly ship cursed to sail the seas for eternity. We then embark in flight with the World Premiere of Daniel Perttu’s violin concerto Stealing From Birds. Inspired by the beauty of bird songs, WSO Concertmaster Holly Mulcahy brings this concerto to life for the very first time!

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The Firebird

Century II Performing Arts & Convention Center

Join us in celebrating the accomplishments of Wichita’s Sound of the Future at our Youth Orchestras concerts in the 2025-2026 season. The Youth Symphony, Youth Concert Band, and Youth Wind Ensemble perform on Saturday evening, and the Introductory String Ensemble, Youth Chamber Players, and Repertory Orchestra perform on Sunday. And the best news? One ticket admits you to both performances – Saturday AND Sunday!

Wichita Symphony Youth Orchestras Spring Concerts

This stirring concert is a celebration of American creativity with a patriotic blend of classical, jazz, and Broadway influences. We open with Charles Ives’s enigmatic The Unanswered Question, a work that floats in timeless stillness as it contemplates life’s eternal mysteries, and the premiere of Caprice by Boyd Eagle, a 20th century Native American jazz musician and composer and grandfather of our very own Maestro Daniel Hege. The celebration continues with Peter Boyer’s Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue, a modern showpiece for piano and orchestra that pulses with patriotic spirit and cinematic grandeur. Pianist Jeffrey Biegel is performing Boyer’s contemporary Rhapsody in all 50 states, and this performance represents Kansas.

Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue

Travel to the heart of classical music with works from three centuries. Haydn’s elegance, Brahms’s powerful lyricism, and Clyne’s contemporary drive make this a compelling celebration of orchestral music.

Voyage to Vienna: Haydn & Brahms

Podcast link: https://youtu.be/4hagYvrYbuM

The Artelize Podcast and Kasper Holten - Pedefining Opera for the modern world

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d36M5Hi6O80

The Artelize Podcast - A legacy of innovation in Opera: Celebrating Marc A. Scorca

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59E40S_EQSY

The Artelize Podcast: A love letter that was never sent

Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THv6htilWtI

The Artelize Podcast and Adolfo Corrado: Mediterranean flavors, opera and social media

Wichita Symphony Youth Orchestras Fall Concerts

Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers sets the mood for an evening of bold, brilliant performances. Inspired by Beethoven’s journals, it is a gripping and rhythmically charged response to the great composer’s defiance of destiny. Simon’s work crackles with urgency channeling Beethoven’s spirit in a voice that’s modern, bold, and uncompromising.

Beethoven’s Emperor

Join Musicians of the Wichita Symphony in public libraries and other community spaces this summer!

Symphony Storytime

PBS Kansas

Andover Central Park

Augusta Public Library

Derby Public Library

Bradford Memorial Library

Park City Public Library

Advanced Learning Library

Alford Branch

Evergreen Branch

Maya Angelou Northeast Branch

Walters Branch

Westlink Branch

If you’d like to learn more about the music in our concert programs, Concert Talks are just what you need! Before every Masterworks Concert, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra will present pre-concert talks which help prepare you and deepen your understanding of the music to be performed in the program. Sometimes our guest soloists even join Maestro Hege for a discussion of their concerto collaboration! Free to all ticket holders, Concert Talks take place in the Concert Hall one hour prior to each Masterworks performance.

Beethoven 9

Dvořák Cello Concerto

The LPO make their first visit to Malvern in over a decade, conducted by Martin Rajna, with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, who is the soloist in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Forum Theatre

Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young pianist as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and composer. Mr. Goodyear began his training at The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, received his bachelor's degree from Curtis Institute of Music, and completed his master's at The Juilliard School. Known as an improviser and composer, he has been commissioned by orchestras and chamber music organizations, and performs his own solo works.  Mr. Goodyear has performed with major orchestras of the world , including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, plus many more. To learn more about Stewart Goodyear, visit stewartgoodyearpiano.com.

Mozart & Rachmaninoff

Described as one of the biggest pianistic talents of the past 25 years, Terrence Wilson traverses the gamut of human emotions in Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto. It’s been said that Mozart’s piano concertos lift the listener to a higher level. Experience the journey from elegant serenity to the depths of despair and back up in a romp of light-hearted gaiety.

The Masters: Mozart + Mahler

Music inspired by Kansas composed for you and the Wichita Symphony! Be in the Century II Concert Hall for this world premiere and celebrate the special occasion. Composer Tim Hinck draws inspiration from his visits to Kansas and immersion in our urban and rural landscapes. He writes classically beautiful music powered by moments of high-octane adrenaline and peppered with the influences of film scores and big-band jazz.

Choral Sensations

Wichita Symphony Youth Orchestra Spring Concert

Hello? Is anyone listening out there? Imagine a musical message – a Primal Message - sent 25,000 light-years away. What would our cosmic greeting sound like? Nokuthula Ngwenyama, inspired by the work of Carl Sagan and the interstellar greeting sent by the Arecibo Observatory in 1974, offers her possibility. As we say in Kansas, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter) depicts an artist who retreats, spiritually wounded, from the turbulent world of contemporary politics into the timeless world of art. Does that sound like a story for our times? In this 1934 music, Hindemith responds to the art of a famous Renaissance altarpiece to convey his emotions about beauty and a rapidly changing world.

Orchestral events in Wichita, KS

The Firebird

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Wichita Symphony Youth Or...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Rhapsody in Red, White & ...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Voyage to Vienna: Haydn &...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Wichita Symphony Youth Or...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven’s Emperor

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Symphony Storytime

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven 9

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Dvořák Cello Concerto

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

London Philharmonic Orche...

Malvern Theatres

Mozart & Rachmaninoff

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

The Masters: Mozart + Mah...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Choral Sensations

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Wichita Symphony Youth Or...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Gabriela Martinez Plays R...

Wichita Symphony Orchestra