California Sympnony 2026-27 Season

Music Director Donato Cabrera

conducting the California Symphony

Photo: Kristen Loken courtesy of California Symphony

California Symphony announced its 2026-27 season this morning, and it is an attractive and interesting season with a good balance of new, unusual, and classic works. Kudos to music director Donato Cabrera for continuing with this excellent programming.

SIBELIUS, HIGDON, AND BARTÓK – American Connections

Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 7:30pm
Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 4pm

Jean Sibelius: The Oceanides (1914)
Jennifer Higdon: Cello Concerto,  Julian Schwarz, cello
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (1943)

FROM TCHAIKOVSKY TO COPLAND – Classical Contemporaries

Saturday, November 7, 2026 at 7:30pm

Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 4pm

Anton Arensky: Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky (1894)

Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto (1948)

     Cory Tiffin, clarinet

Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings (1936)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (1880)

(Cory Tiffin was a frequent substitute clarinetist in SFS between David Neuman's retirement and the hiring of Yuhsin Galaxy Su, the current holder of that chair. Good to see him here as a soloist and as the new principal clarinet of the orchestra.)

HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

Friday, December 18, 2026 at 7:30pm

Saturday, December 19, 2026 at 2pm

Performances at the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church

MOZART AND HAYDN IN PARIS – Music of the Enlightenment

Saturday, January 23, 2027 at 7:30pm
Sunday, January 24, 2027 at 4pm

François Joseph Gossec: Symphony No. 2 in G Major (published 1769)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony. No. 31 in D Major (1778)
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphony No. 1 in G Major (published 1779)
Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 85 in B-flat Major (1785)

BEETHOVEN’S SECOND – Cowell, Adams, & Beethoven: Masterful Mavericks

Saturday, March 13, 2027 at 7:30pm
Sunday, March 14, 2027 at 4pm

Henry Cowell: Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 10 (1955)
John Adams: Violin Concerto (1993)
    Helen Kim, violin
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 2 in D Major (1802)

(Helen Kim was the associate principal second violin in SFS before she won the associate concertmaster position in the Seattle Symphony. I heard her playing music by Samuel Carl Adams last year at the Berkeley Symphony and Other Minds, and wow, she is a great player.)

PINES OF ROME – Orchestral Landscapes

Saturday, May 8, 2027 at 7:30pm

Sunday, May 9, 2027 at 4pm

Paul Novak: World Premiere

Composer-in-Residence

Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1909-15)

    Tanya Gabrielian, piano

Manuel Ponce: Chapultepec (1929, rev. 1934)

Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome (1924)

(I've heard Pines of Rome three times in the last four years at SFS, and that was at least twice too many. It's good, noisy, fascist fun once a decade. But the rest of the program is definitely worth hearing!)