2024-25 Season

A very exciting season of performances in 2024-25 by the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, and Stanford New Ensemble lies ahead! Students and community members interested in joining SP, SSO, and/or SNE this fall should fill out the 2024 Stanford Orchestra Participation Form, view the Fall 2024 Audition Information page, and sign up for an audition time here.

The programs of the Fall concerts, conducted by Paul Phillips, are listed below.

Stanford Philharmonia’s Fall Concert will commemorate the Charles Ives sesquicentennial and feature two Concerto Competition winners in the performance of a new double percussion concerto composed in 2021. Works by Rossini and Mozart round out the program:

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA FALL CONCERT
Saturday, 9 November 2024 • 7:30 PM •  Bing Concert Hall
WOLFGANG A. MOZART    Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297, “Paris”
JOHN PSATHAS    The All-Seeing Sky    Ireh Kim ’25 & Andrew Chen ’26, percussion – 2024 Concerto Competition winners
GIOACCHINO ROSSINI    Overture to L’Italiana in Algeri
CHARLES IVES    Symphony No. 3, “The Camp Meeting”   celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth

SP will end the quarter with a trip to southern California for a joint concert with the Pasadena Symphony Youth Orchestra Philharmonic in the renowned Ambassador Auditorium. The combined orchestras will play music by Verdi and Ravel, with Paul Phillips and PSYO music director Chris Kim sharing the conducting duties. SP and the PSYO Philharmonic will also perform separately, with SP repeating the Psathas percussion concerto and the PSYO Philharmonic performing the first movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA JOINT CONCERT with PSYO PHILHARMONIC
Saturday, 7 December 2024 • 7:30 PM •  Ambassador Auditorium (Pasadena, CA)
GIUSEPPE VERDI    Overture to Nabucco    Paul Phillips, conductor
JOHN PSATHAS    The All-Seeing Sky    Ireh Kim ’25 & Andrew Chen ’26, percussion
FELIX MENDELSSOHN    Violin Concerto in E Minor, 1st mvt    Madeline Son, violinist
MAURICE RAVEL    Rapsodie Espagnole    Chris Kim, conductor

It’s always extra special when the Stanford Symphony Orchestra’s annual Halloween Concert falls on Halloween, as it does this year. The concert ends with a Costume Competition and everyone in SSO will be in costume for this fun-filled performance.

SSO HALLOWEEN CONCERT with the STANFORD WIND SYMPHONY
Thursday, 31 October 2024 • 7:30 PM • Dinkelspiel Auditorium
JOHN WILLIAMS    Harry Potter Symphonic Suite
PAUL DUKAS    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
IGOR STRAVINSKY    Infernal Dance, Berceuse and Finale from “The Firebird”
plus selections by the Stanford Wind Symphony

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti was a good friend of John Chowning, the founder of CCRMA, Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, and played an important role in the creation of this world-renowned center. This year marks CCRMA’s 50th anniversary, which will be celebrated with an all-Ligeti concert that features the SSO and Stanford New Ensemble.

CCRMA 50th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT
Music of GYÖRGY LIGETI
Sunday, 3 November 2024 • 7:30 PM • Dinkelspiel Auditorium
Atmosphères (1961)  Stanford Symphony Orchestra
Musica Ricercata (1951-53)  Roger Xia ’24, pianist
Artikulation (1958)  electronic composition
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1990/1992)  Tanja Becker-Bender, violin, with Stanford New Ensemble 

SSO will repeat Atmosphères on its Fall Concerts, which include Stravinsky’s complete Firebird ballet score along with Concerto Competition winner Spencer Cha performing Rachmaninoff.

SSO FALL CONCERTS
Friday, 15 November 2024 • 7:30 PM • Bing Concert Hall
Sunday, 17 November 2024 • 2:30 PM • Bing Concert Hall
GYÖRGY LIGETI    Atmosphères
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF     Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30   Spencer Cha ’26, piano – 2024 Concerto Competition winner
IGOR STRAVINSKY    The Firebird (complete ballet 1910)

This page will be updated later on with information about the Winter and Spring concerts.

 

2023-24 Season

Fall Quarter 2023-24 opened with a very special event: a performance in Frost Amphitheater by Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring the Wolf Pack with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Phillips. This 3 1/2-hour performance, for 6000 cheering Deadheads on 29 October 2023, featured arrangements by Giancarlo Aquilanti of favorite Grateful Dead songs, including the premieres of several new Aquilanti arrangements.

On 11 November, Stanford Philharmonia presented the West Coast premiere of Dedication by the great American composer William Bolcom (Stanford DMA 1964) as part of the California Festival, “A Celebration of New Music”. The entire program was:
MOZART    Symphony No. 34 in C major, K. 338
BOLCOM    Dedication (2022)   West Coast premiere
J. STRAUSS     The Beautiful Blue Danube
SCHUBERT    Symphony No. 2 in B♭ major

 

On 1 and 2 December, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra performed its Fall Concerts, which featured two winners of the 2023 Concerto Competition:
R. STRAUSS     Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
BRAHMS     Violin Concerto in D major   Richard Cheung ’24, violin
GRIFFES     Poem for Flute and Orchestra  Laura Futamura ’24, flute
PISTON     The Incredible Flutist Ballet Suite

SP’s Winter Concert on 24 February 2024 featured renowned pianist Stephen Prutsman performing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto:
BEETHOVEN    Coriolan Overture  Sean Tan ’27, conductor
STRAVINSKY     Suites Nos. 1 & 2 for Small Orchestra
RAVEL    Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite)
BEETHOVEN     Piano Concerto No. 5 in E♭ major, “Emperor”  Stephen Prutsman, piano

The Winter Concerts on 8 & 9 March 2024 featured the Stanford Symphonic Chorus in collaboration with SSO:
MAHLER       Symphony No. 4    Maya Kherani, soprano      Paul Phillips, conductor
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS       Dona Nobis Pacem    Maya Kherani, soprano   Kenneth Goodson, baritone     Stephen Sano, conductor

The program of the SP Spring Concert on 11 May 2024 is:
MENDELSSOHN       Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream
FAURÉ     Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op. 80
BRUCH      Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor   Sean Mori ’24, violin / 2024 Concerto Competition Winner
POULENC      Sinfonietta  

The SSO Spring Concerts on 17 & 18 May 2024 featured cellist Christopher Costanza as soloist. The program included works to be performed on the SSO’s two-week concert tour of France from 16-30 June 2024, which commenced in Paris/Versailles and concluded in Monte Carlo. This was the first international tour by the SSO since 2017!
WILLIAMS      Olympic Fanfare and Theme
HAILSTORK      Three Spirituals
BERLIOZ      Hungarian March
BURGESS      In memoriam Princess Grace
SAINT-SAËNS     Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor    Christopher Costanza, violoncello
GERSHWIN      An American in Paris

The 2024 Stanford Summer Symphony performed works by Arturo Márquez, Richard Strauss, Edvard Grieg, and Aaron Copland on Friday, 2 August 2024 in Bing Concert Hall. Laura Griffiths, Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, was the soloist in Strauss’s Oboe Concerto.

Videos of most SSO, SP, and SSS concerts from 2017-2023 are posted on the Stanford Orchestras YouTube channel. We hope that you enjoy these videos and invite you to subscribe to our channel and share your comments.

2022-23 Season

The 2023 Stanford Summer Symphony concert was sold out! The SSS played to a full house in Bing Concert Hall on Saturday, 29 July 2023, performing:
STILL    Afro-American Symphony (No. 1)
PERRY     The Silent Years    West Coast premiere  Michael Chertock, piano
DVORAK     Symphony No. 9 in E major, op. 95, “From the New World”

Guest composer William Perry attended the concert, which included his composition The Silent Years, presented with film and featuring piano soloist Michael Chertock.

On Friday, 19 May, and Saturday, 20 May 2023, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Paul Phillips presented the California premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain Suite on its Spring Concerts in Bing Concert Hall. The program also featured Roger Xia ’24, a winner of the 2023 Concerto Competition, as soloist in Serge Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and concluded with Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

On Saturday, 13 May 2023, Stanford Philharmonia performed Robert Schumann’s Manfred Overture, Franz Doppler’s Concerto for Two Flutes in D minor, André Waignein’s Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, and Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 on its Spring Concert in Bing Concert Hall. The concert featured three winners of the 2023 Concerto Competition, flutists Jenny Xiong ’24 and Daniel Sun ’25 and alto saxophonist Zachary Lin ’26.

Less than a week after classes began in Fall 2022, the SSO performed a joint concert with the University of Stuttgart Academic Orchestra on 1 October. The concert, which concluded USAO’s North American tour, presented both orchestras performing three works together – Tragic Overture and Academic Festival Overture by Johannes Brahms and Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams – with a combined total of 180 musicians performing together on the stage of Bing Concert Hall. The Stuttgart Orchestra also performed Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto and Symphony No. 4 by Robert Schumann. USAO music director Mihály Zeke and SSO music director Paul Phillips shared the conducting duties. 

On Friday, 28 October, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Wind Symphony presented the annual Halloween Concert in Dinkelspiel Auditorium, with SSO performing Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story; Aaron Copland’s Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo, led by four conducting students of Professor Phillips; and Global Warming by Michael Abels. 

On 12 November, Stanford Philharmonia performed its Fall Concert in Bing Concert Hall, performing Symphony No. 95 in C Minor by Franz Joseph Haydn, Pavane for a Dead Princess by Maurice Ravel, Finding Rothko by Adam Schoenberg, and Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and Strings with soloist Elizabeth Schumann, Lecturer in Piano at Stanford.

The SSO’s Fall Concerts took place on 2 & 4 December in Bing Concert Hall. The program included the Overture to La Forza del Destino by Giuseppe Verdi, Global Warming by Michael Abels, Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto featuring 2022 Concerto Competition winner Jessica Lee ’24, and Lukas Foss’s Symphony No. 1 celebrating the centenary of the composer’s birth. As a tribute to Geoff Nuttall (1965-2022), Go Perfect Into Peace, a short work by Paul Phillips, was added to the program.

SP and the Stanford Chamber Chorale performed the annual Friends of Music Holiday Musicale in Memorial Church on 3 December 2022. The program  included music by Rameau, Debussy, Handel, Rutter, and MacKinnon, plus additional choral works sung by the SCC.

SP performed Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner, Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor by Camille Saint-Saëns, and Symphony No. 6 in F major, “Pastorale”, by Ludwig van Beethoven on its Winter Concert, which was conducted by Paul Phillips and took place on Friday, 24 February 2023 in Bing Concert Hall. Internationally famed violinist Francisco Fullana was the concerto soloist.

On 10 March 2023, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra and Stanford Symphonic Chorus presented the West Coast premiere of A Knee on the Neck, a new requiem with text by Herbert Martin and music by Adolphus Hailstork, with a repeat performance on Sunday, 12 March. Martin and Hailstork attended both performances in person and also met with groups of Stanford students during their visits. The concerts, conducted by Paul Phillips, began with Maurice Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote with cello soloist Christopher Costanza. The mezzo soprano soloist in A Knee on the Neck was Stanford alumna Samantha Williams; the tenor and baritone soloists were Alexander Taite and Wilford Kelly, both of whom are members of the San Francisco Opera Chorus.

The Stanford Orchestras are proud members of the League of American Orchestras and the Association of California Symphony Orchestras.