Our Concerto Movement Competition is now accepting applications, from high school (or younger) string players and pianists, and college age (or younger) wind, brass, and percussion players.
Announcing our 2024-2025 Season!!
BAROQUE Concert 7:30pm SATURday, SEPTEMBER 7, 2024
Music with select soloists and small ensembles performing a delightful array of music from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries…
First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
A Journey toward Redemption 7:30pm Saturday, October 19, 2024
Farrenc Overture No. 1
Strauss Four Last Songs
Heidi Moss Erickson, soprano
Grieg Peer Gynt Suite
Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
FALL CHAMBER Concert 7:30pm SATURday, NOVEMBER 9, 2024
Philharmonic musicians and their friends in wind, string, and brass ensembles...
First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
Transcending Fate 7:30pm Saturday, DECEMBER 14, 2024
Uebayashi Flute Concerto
Ráyo Furuta, flute
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
Forbidden Love 7:30pm Saturday, February 22, 2025
Mozart Overture to “Marriage of Figaro"
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22
Sandra Wright Shen, piano
Delius A Village Romeo and Juliet: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
Tchaikovsy Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
SPRING CHAMBER Concert 7:30pm SATURday, March 8, 2025
Philharmonic musicians and their friends in wind, string, and brass ensembles...
First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
Home and Heart 7:30pm Saturday, APril 5, 2025
Copland Our Town
Coleridge-Taylor Symphonic Variations on an African Air
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”)
Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
Family ConcerT 3:00pm SUNday, May 18, 2025
…featuring the young winners of our 2025 Concerto Movement Competition!
Cubberley Theatre, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
SUMMER Chamber Concert 7:30pm Saturday, June 21, 2025
Philharmonic musicians and their friends in wind, string, and brass ensembles...
First Lutheran Church, Palo Alto ($25 General/Senior; $10 Youth/Student)
A message from Music Director Lara Webber
Welcome back!
Great symphonic music brings us together, stirs the soul, and ignites the imagination.
Join us in the transcendent experience of creating and hearing this extraordinary music live in concert, performed by talented musicians from within your community.
Next season will feature beloved works by Beethoven, Copland, Dvořák, Grieg, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Tchaikovsky, and spotlights the music of Louise Farrenc, Yuko Uebayashi, Frederick Delius, and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. You’ll hear remarkable soloists, including soprano Heidi Moss Erickson, flutist Ray Furuta, and pianist Sandra Wright Shen. We’ll continue our well-received series of Chamber Music concerts (in November, March and June), and we’ll “kick off” our season with our popular Baroque Concert in September. Our season will culminate in our usual May Family Concert, featuring the young winners of our 2025 Concerto Movement Competition.
Whether reflecting on the past, speaking to the present, or framing the future, these remarkable composers and artists will bring you joy, passion, insight, and excitement.
Join us!
Lara
About the Philharmonic —
In 1988, a group of musicians and lovers of classical music organized a new community-based orchestra in Palo Alto, with the goal of presenting an annual series of orchestral and chamber music concerts performed by local musicians and led by conductor Gideon Grau for a discriminating local audience.
Today, 35 seasons later, the orchestra is led by Music Director Lara Webber, assisted by Composer-in-Residence and Assistant Conductor Lee Actor.
The Palo Alto Philharmonic Association is a registered non-profit organization, governed by an all-volunteer Board of Directors. In addition to presenting musically stimulating concerts at reasonable prices and in venues convenient to many, the Philharmonic is dedicated to encouraging all — young and old — to perform and appreciate serious contemporary and classical music. Our members as well as our audience, come from all over the Bay Area to make and enjoy music together.
In addition to the four Orchestra Concerts that constitute the backbone of the season, there are two Chamber Concerts and a Family Concert. The Chamber Concerts are a mix of small instrumental groups, that include orchestra members and invited guest musicians. Over the years, a loyal following has attended these performances. Our most recent addition is our Baroque Concert, held at the beginning of each concert season in September. This concert, featuring chamber and small-ensemble music from the Baroque period, has been tremendously successful. Our Family Concert, at the close of each season in May, has attracted its own following. These concerts have featured winners of student concerto movement competitions, educational and musical journeys designed to interest and entertain young and old.
Ticket prices cover only a small percentage of our operating costs; a large part of our success is due to your generous donations.
MUSIC Director LARA WEBBER
Composer-in-Residence and
Assistant Conductor Lee Actor
