Embark on a mesmerizing auditory journey with the California Symphony, as they present an enchanting series of performances that promise to captivate and inspire. From the calming meditative embrace of 'Mozart Serenity' to the emotional depths explored in 'Tchaikovsky Passion', and the haunting beauty of 'Unfinished Bruckner', each concert is a testament to the timeless allure of orchestral music. With acclaimed conductors and virtuoso soloists, these events are set to explore the profound emotional landscapes and intricate artistic expressions that classical music uniquely offers.

California Symphony's Masterpiece Journey: A Season of Orchestral Brilliance

The California Symphony invites you on a symphonic journey with three distinctive concerts: 'Mozart Serenity', 'Tchaikovsky Passion', and 'Unfinished Bruckner'. Each event promises an orchestral experience that melds the genius of history's greatest composers with contemporary creative expressions. From the soothing compositions of Mozart to the emotional depths of Tchaikovsky, and the haunting beauty of Schubert, these performances will captivate audiences with their artistic brilliance and profound musical storytelling.

California Symphony: A Triad of Orchestral Masterpieces

In the rich tapestry of orchestral music, the California Symphony presents a trio of captivating events that promise to enchant audiences. Spanning from the calming serenity of Mozart to the emotional depths of Tchaikovsky, these performances offer a remarkable journey through classical grandeur. Featuring renowned artists like Donato Cabrera and Meng Su, these concerts bring to life masterpieces from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and beyond, set against the backdrop of the esteemed Lesher Center for the Arts. Join us as we delve into the magic of these upcoming symphonic experiences.

Exploring Orchestral Wonders: From Mozart's Serenity to Tchaikovsky's Drama

Conducted by Donato Cabrera, California Symphony performs at the Lesher Center, featuring California Symphony Concertmaster Jenny Cho and Assistant Concertmaster Sam Weiser.

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Northern Lights

Lesher Center for the Arts

Conducted by Donato Cabrera, California Symphony performs at the Lesher Center, featuring guest soloist Nathan Chan.

Schubert in Vienna

Conducted by Donato Cabrera, California Symphony performs at the Lesher Center, featuring guest soloist Robert Thies.

Beethoven’s Eroica

Ravel’s mesmerizing Boléro builds from a whisper to a triumphant climax as two beguiling melodies are shared throughout the entire ensemble in the first of three orchestral showstoppers on the 2025/26 season opener.

Pictures from Paris

You’ll hear the two surviving movements of Franz Schubert’s haunting and beautiful unfinished symphony, and the three completed movements of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9.
Declining health, hesitation over how to continue the piece, work overload, and even that the pages were completed but ultimately lost… Theories abound, but no one knows why Schubert never finished his eighth symphony.

Unfinished Bruckner

Stirring music that’s full of emotion and drama, with Tchaikovsky’s powerful final symphony as its conclusion.

Tchaikovsky Passion

A calming meditation, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto, and Mozart’s classical grandeur combine for one captivating concert.

Mozart Serenity

Explore the orchestra with Britten's lively guide, Bates' modern movie tour, and Brahms' emotive final symphony.

Brahms Odyssey

Pioneering 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc’s Overture sets the stage for a thrilling season opening concert.
Instantly recognizable, Beethoven’s ninth and final symphony is widely regarded as one of the greatest masterpieces in classical music. Powerful and uplifting, Ode to Joy has become an enduring anthem for unity.

Beethoven’s Ninth

Instructor Scott Foglesong presents a fun and stimulating journey through classical music for adult learners in four classes in Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed. This is an introductory course that’s designed to enhance your enjoyment of all kinds of orchestra music.

Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed – Part 4

Walnut Creek Library - Contra Costa County Library

Tortured by comparisons to Beethoven, it took Brahms 21 years to finish writing his first symphony. Some critics hailed the piece as “Beethoven’s Tenth” in recognition of Brahms’ ultimate triumph.

Brahms Obsessions

In the 1984 movie Amadeus, Mozart’s rival Salieri hears the Gran Partita and famously proclaims, “It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.”

Mozart Serenades

After a rapturous reception at its Carnegie Hall debut, William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, quickly disappeared into obscurity. This American masterpiece is only now starting to receive the attention it merits.

Gershwin In New York

Composed in a little over a month, Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 was inspired by a happy, peaceful trip to the Rhineland with his wife beloved wife, Clara.

Handel—Rivers Of Inspiration

Aaron Copland’s exuberant Appalachian Spring celebrates the American pioneer spirit and famously quotes the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts.

Copland—American Traditions

French composer Hector Berlioz spent a miserable two years in Italy as winner of the prestigious Prix de Rome, but it inspired some of this greatest music. Roman Carnival is nine minutes of jaunty music originally intended as an overture to an opera.
Viet Cuong, California Symphony’s “wildly inventive” (New York Times) and “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) resident composer (2020-23) debuts his third and final composition for the orchestra.
British composer William Walton was the John Williams of the 1940s and ‘50s, composing music for movies including Sir Laurence Olivier’s iconic Henry V. His Symphony No. 1 is considered one of the greatest symphonies of the 20th century.

Fresh Inspirations

The irresistible beat of Latin Big Band music fills the air for Rhythms and Revelry, an unforgettable evening of hot Havana-themed glamor and entertainment at Bay Area landmark the Claremont Hotel.

Special Event: Rhythms and Revelry

A Fairmont Hotel

Alexander Zemlinsky fell in love with his composition student Alma Schindler, but she rejected him and married Gustav Mahler. Lustspiel Overture’s lush melodies echo those of Brahms, who was a supporter of the young Zemlinsky.
Alma Schindler was an accomplished composer before she gave it up to marry Gustav Mahler. Within a few years, unfulfilled and depressed, she had an affair, which prompted Gustav to take Alma’s musical ambitions more seriously. These five songs were the only works by Alma Mahler to be published in her husband’s lifetime.
Hans Rott and Gustav Mahler were classmates and roommates in late 1870s Vienna but their fortunes diverged soon after, and Rott died in an asylum at age 25. Rott’s one and only completed symphony—receiving its California premiere here—bears many similarities to Mahler’s works, and scholars are only now uncovering Rott’s enormous influence on his celebrated friend.

Mahler's Inner Circle

French Caribbean composer Joseph Bologne, also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was born in 1745 in the French colony of Guadaloupe to a wealthy white plantation owner and enslaved mother. Sent to Paris at 13 to gain an education, Bologne became a master swordsman, renowned violinist, and accomplished composer. The Anonymous Lover is an overture from one of his six surviving operas.
Fréderic Chopin settled in Paris at 21 but his first piano concerto was composed a year earlier in 1830, in his native Poland. Memorable, romantic, and popular with audiences, the piano is very much the star of this piece.
Born in Liège, Belgium, César Franck sought his fortune in Paris and achieved renown as an organist, teacher, and composer. From the 1920s until it inexplicably fell out of favor in the 1960s, American audiences couldn’t get enough of Franck’s sensuous and passionate Symphony in D minor. We revisit the groundbreaking piece that inspired a generation of up-and-coming French composers.

Chopin in Paris

Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro was composed in 1905 to show off the virtuosity of players in the string section of the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra.
20th Century Polish composer and violinist Grażyna Bacewicz showcases each section—violins, violas, cellos and double basses—and makes each the soloist in her Concerto for String Orchestra.
Achingly beautiful, Eclogue for Strings by British composer Gerald Finzi was originally intended to be a grand piano concerto. The one-movement piece that emerged instead—never performed during the composer’s lifetime—is played by San Francisco-born Elizabeth Dorman.
Dvořák’s talent for melody-making is at the fore in Serenade for Strings, a rich and soulful piece than takes listeners on a journey from its mellow opening, through a graceful waltz, to a jubilant finale.

All Things Strings

Hungarian composer and 20th century music education pioneer Zoltán Kodály wrote the Dances of Galánta based on folk music he heard as a child.
GRAMMY® nominated composer Anna Clyne’s DANCE is performed by Inbal Segev, the artist for whom it was written. Each of the five movements in the piece is inspired by a line in a poem by 13th century mystic Rumi.
Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk’s Melody for Symphony Orchestra has become a rallying cry for his homeland.
One of Tchaikovsky’s most joyful compositions, Symphony No. 2 was written while spending the summer in Ukraine. The piece melds Western and Russian symphonic structures with the music of Ukrainian folk songs, reflecting the confluence and collision of cultures through centuries of coexistence and conflict.

Intersections

Conducted by Donato Cabrera, California Symphony performs at the Lesher Center, featuring guest soloist Sofya Gulyak.

Heroic Rachmaninoff

All three works were premiered in the United States, a fitting nod as the nation marks its 250th anniversary and reflects on artistic ties across continents and generations.

Sibelius, Higdon, and Bartók

From Tchaikovsky to Copland

Let your spirits soar with the California Symphony’s Holiday Traditions concert, featuring brass, percussion, and organ in a vibrant celebration of Christmas and seasonal music. The program moves from quiet reflection to joyful rhythmic celebration, blending familiar holiday carols like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Carol of the Bells with selections from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, spanning centuries of classical and folk holiday music.

Sacred and folk influences come together in clear, resonant arrangements, highlighting both the power and intimacy of these orchestral holiday works, offering audiences a direct and uplifting way to experience the music of the season.

California Symphony

9 - 10 May, 2026

Heroic Rachmaninoff

26 - 27 Sep, 2026

Sibelius, Higdon, and Bartók

7 - 8 Nov, 2026

From Tchaikovsky to Copland

18 - 19 Dec, 2026

Holiday Traditions

6 - 7 Feb, 2027

Mozart and Haydn in Paris

21 - 22 Mar, 2026

Northern Lights

24 - 25 Jan, 2026

Schubert in Vienna

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