Feb
22
7:30 PM19:30

FORBIDDEN LOVE

Pre-concert talk at 7:00pm

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Overture to "Marriage of Figaro"
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22
       Sandra Wright Shen, piano
Frederick Delius       A Village Romeo and Juliet: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth/Student
Admission: $10

2024-2025 Season Tickets also available now

For online purchases: clicking "Add to Cart" will connect to a remote secure server for your transaction. You may need to enable "pop-up windows" for the shopping cart to function properly. Bring your receipt to our Will Call table to obtain a ticket. Tickets bought online will not be sent through the mail.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open 45 minutes before the start of the concert.



Steinway Artist Sandra Wright Shen has been described as a classical “pianist of the first order”. With her passion, musicality, and inspiration, she aims to move hearts through music.

Sandra has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in 14 countries and throughout US, at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Music Center in DC, the Chicago Cultural Center, Monte Carlo Opera House, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Frankfurt Cultural Center in Germany, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Korea Seoul Arts Center, Hong Kong City Hall, Granada Intl Music Festival, Recontres Musicale de Chaon in France, Brevard Music Festival, Tanglewood BUTI, Chelsea Music Festival and Masterworks Music Festival. As a guest artist, she has appeared with Charleston Symphony, Hilton Head Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Brevard Festival Sinfonia, New Millennium Orchestra, Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Formosa Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Taipei Symphony and others. Shen was the Artist-In-Residence of the Charleston Symphony for the 2017-18 season. She has played chamber concerts with Vesselin Paraschkevov, former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and with Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cello of San Francisco Symphony, Brinton Smith, Principal Cello of Houston Symphony and bassoonist Sergio Azollini. She has also performed on tour in Asia with cellist Nina Kotova.

Shen has received several first prizes in several major piano competitions, including the 2012 France International Piano Competition, 1997 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the 1996 Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, and the 1990 Taiwan National Piano Competition.

Shen’s recordings include her debut CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, and the Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals”, both released on the Taiwan Rolling Stone Music label. "Momentum", with cellist Miriam Smith, was released in 2022 on Azica Records.

As an educator, Shen is the Piano Chair of San Francisco Conservatory of Music PreCollege, Masterworks Festival, and guest artist faculty for Tanglewood BUTI Young Artist Piano Program. She served on the piano faculty at the Brevard Music Festival, Steinway Society Summer Music camp, Music @Tetauchi, American Fine Arts Festival in Europe and others. She also served as piano faculty at Southern Illinois University and was frequently invited to be Distinguished Guest Faculty at Furman University. Her students have received top prizes from various competitions including International Piano Competition of Orléans for the youth in France, the Chopin Foundation, American Virtuoso International and others.

Sandra performed live for WCQS radio station in Asheville, filmed a 4-part series titled “The Movements of the Master composers” for Hong Kong TV, and “Inspiration From Above” featuring spiritual lives of the composers for US Creation TV. She also hosted a classical music program on Taiwan IC broadcast radio station. Mixing music and philanthropy, Sandra has played benefit concerts for disaster victims, foster children, firefighters, and music education for underprivileged children.

Sandra was born in Taiwan and received her Bachelor and Master of Music with a piano performance major and organ minor from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with legendary pianist, Ann Schein and organist Donald Sutherland. Her teachers include Raymond Hanson, Dr. Michael Dellinger, Jorg Demus, Zalina and Oleg Barsov, Ruth Slencynska, Thomas Laratta, Erna Gulabyan, and Haggai Niv.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

View Event →
Mar
8
7:30 PM19:30

SPRING CHAMBER CONCERT

Philharmonic musicians and their friends in wind, string, and brass ensembles... 

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth/Student
Admission: $10

For online purchases: clicking "Add to Cart" will connect to a remote secure server for your transaction. You may need to enable "pop-up windows" for the shopping cart to function properly. Bring your receipt to our Will Call table to obtain a ticket. Tickets bought online will NOT be sent through the mail.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open 45 minutes before the start of the concert.


View Event →
Apr
5
7:30 PM19:30

HOME AND HEART

Pre-concert talk at 7:00pm

Aaron Copland Our Town
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor       Symphonic Variations on an African Air
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World")

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth (≤25) / Student
Admission: $10

For online purchases: clicking "Add to Cart" will connect to a remote secure server for your transaction. You may need to enable "pop-up windows" for the shopping cart to function properly. Bring your receipt to our Will Call table to obtain a ticket. Tickets bought online will not be sent through the mail.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open at 7:15pm — 15 minutes before the start of the pre-concert talk.

View Event →
May
18
3:00 PM15:00

FAMILY CONCERT

Featuring the Winners of
       our 2025 Concerto Movement Competition

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth(≤25) / Student
Admission: $10

For online purchases: clicking "Add to Cart" will connect to a remote secure server for your transaction. You may need to enable "pop-up windows" for the shopping cart to function properly. Bring your receipt to our Will Call table to obtain a ticket. Tickets bought online will NOT be sent through the mail.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open 45 minutes before the start of the concert.

View Event →
Jun
21
7:30 PM19:30

SUMMER CHAMBER CONCERT

Philharmonic musicians and their friends in wind, string, and brass ensembles... 

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth/Student
Admission: $10

For online purchases: clicking "Add to Cart" will connect to a remote secure server for your transaction. You may need to enable "pop-up windows" for the shopping cart to function properly. Bring your receipt to our Will Call table to obtain a ticket. Tickets bought online will not be sent through the mail.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open 45 minutes before the start of the concert.

View Event →

Dec
14
7:30 PM19:30

TRANSCENDING FATE

Pre-concert talk at 7:00pm

Yuko Uebayashi       Flute Concerto
       Ráyo Furuta, flute
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5

General/Senior
Admission: $25
Youth/Student
Admission: $10

2024-2025 Season Tickets also available now

Current County of Santa Clara guidelines are that vaccination, boosters, and face coverings while indoors are strongly recommended, but are not required.

At the door: we accept credit cards, cash or check. The Box Office will open 30 minutes before the start of the concert.


Renowned as "The Rockstar of the Flute" by the Informador de Guadalajara in Mexico, Mexican-Japanese American flutist Ráyo Furuta stands as a captivating artist and performer of global acclaim with command over the classical, contemporary, world, jazz, and pop realms.

At the remarkably young age of 25, Furuta was officiated as a cultural ambassador to the United States of America. Since then, he has showcased his virtuosity as both a performer and educator on the international stage, gracing audiences in Mexico, Japan, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and across the Middle East and North America. His prestigious performances include those with Yo-Yo Ma's Silkroad Ensemble, American Composer's Forum, The United Nations, and the celebrated Annapolis, Banff, Icicle Creek, Mainly Mozart, Opera en la Calle, Okayama, Saarburg, Sarasota, Silicon Valley, and Yellowbarn Music Festivals to name only a few.

Furuta's dynamic presence extends to solo performances, frequently appearing as a concerto soloist specializing in the contemporary concerti by composers Gabriela Lena Frank, Yuko Uebayashi, and Paul Schoenfield. As a touring solo recitalist and alongside is longtime duo partner Michelle Cann, he has masterfully interpreted the cornerstones of the flute repertoire, while simultaneously building it with his own arrangements and compositions.

As a dedicated chamber musician he has performed alongside luminaries like Jon Nakamatsu, Peter Frankl, and members of acclaimed string quartets like Avalon, Brooklyn Rider, Kronos, Mendelssohn, and Emerson. Additionally, his passion for global music has led to performances with superstars Van Anh Vo (Danh Tranh), Sandeep Das (Indian Tabla), Vijay Gopal (Bansuri), Merima Kljuco (Accordion), Ghassan Sahhab (Qanun), and Christina Pato (Galacian Bagpipe) to name only a few. He is also a member of the Mexico-city based Contemporary Mexican Jazz Band, Toktli, and is a leading-artist-member of the Common Sounds ensemble.

Furuta serves as a Professor of Flute and Chamber Music at San Jose State University. Formerly and for a decade starting at the age of 25, he was the Lecturer of Performance Practice and Community Engagement at Santa Clara University, where he was honored (2023) with a distinguished faculty award for his commitment to serving marginalized communities. He has also shared his expertise through residencies and master classes at esteemed institutions worldwide, including the Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Stanford University, Lebanese American University of Beirut, University of Guadalajara, and many more. Additionally, he has served as a Visiting Professor of Flute at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Ráyo Furuta has channeled his passion for community and civic engagement into a substantial part of his musical journey. Through his "Mas Amor Arts" initiative, he has consistently undertaken initiatives aimed at underserved communities, including involvement in local juvenile detention centers and collaborative endeavors benefiting homeless women of color and California's Farmworkers. Furthermore, he has instituted an annual project in marginalized areas of Tijuana, Mexico, offering music education to youth as a means of diverting them from the streets. His commitment extends globally, as he has also delivered performances to Syrian refugees in the Middle East.

Recognized as a distinguished curator, Furuta assumes the role of Executive Artistic Director for Chamber Music Silicon Valley, a preeminent arts organization in California. Additionally, he oversees the weekly Music@Noon concert series at Santa Clara University. His innovative spirit and commitment to advancing the arts earned him the 2024 Music Teacher's National Association 'Power of Innovation Award,' the prestigious Silicon Valley '2018 X-Factor Arts Prize', which lauds entrepreneurial and creative ideas in the arts sector, as well as the 2019 "On the Stage" Artist Laureate of SVCreates, a recognition that identifies Silicon Valley's foremost artists based on their exceptional work quality and dedication to enriching the community.

A recipient of the prestigious Staller Scholar and distinguished alumni "40 under 40" awards, Ráyo Furuta holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, where he was a direct pupil of Carol Wincenc and the Emerson String Quartet. He was also heavily influenced by other mentors such as flutists Isabelle Chapuis, Jill Felber, and Elena Yarritu, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, and violinist Philip Setzer and is also an alumnus of the Multicultural Artist Leadership Institute (MALI).

Ráyo Furuta is a Burkart Artist and exclusively performs on a Lilian Burkart 9k gold flute.

View Event →