2025-26 Season

Students and community members interested in auditioning for Stanford Philharmonia and/or the Stanford Symphony Orchestra are asked to fill out the 2025-26 Orchestra Participation Form. The fall auditions took place 15-21 September 2025. SSO rehearsals, on Monday and Thursday evenings, began on September 22; SP rehearsals, on Tuesday evenings, began on September 23. Paul Phillips, Professor of Music and Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies, conducts both orchestras during Fall 2025. During Professor Phillips’s sabbatical in Winter and Spring 2026, John Eells will fill in as conductor of SSO and SP.

Stanford Philharmonia opens its 2025-26 season with an Italian program celebrating the 100th anniversary of Luciano Berio and closing with Stravinsky’s complete Pulcinella, based on music of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and other early Italian composers.

VIVA ITALIA
STANFORD PHILHARMONIA FALL CONCERT
Saturday, 8 November 2025 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
OTTORINO RESPIGHI    Antiche Danze ed Arie, Suite 1
CHARLES KOECHLIN    Septet for Wind Instruments   Sean Tan ’27, conductor 
LUCIANO BERIO    Corale   Alexander Goldberg, violin   Berio centenary
IGOR STRAVINSKY    Pulcinella      
    HaYoung Jung, mezzo-soprano
    Nicolas Vasquez-Gerst, tenor
    Glenn Healy, bass

The Stanford Symphony Orchestra teams up with the Stanford Wind Symphony to present the annual Halloween Concert. All SSO and SWS members dress in costume for the concert, which culminates with the annual Costume Competition, whose winner guest conducts the Stanford Wind Symphony.

SSO HALLOWEEN CONCERT with the STANFORD WIND SYMPHONY
Friday, 31 October 2025 • 7:30 PM
Dinkelspiel Auditorium
ALAN MENKEN   Beauty and the Beast Suite
MANUEL DE FALLA   El sombrero de tres picos: “The Neighbors’ Dance”   Sean Tan ’27, conductor 
JOAQUIN RODRIGO   Concierto de Aranjuez: 1st mvt   Eric Wang ’26, guitar
GIOACHINO ROSSINI    William Tell Overture
plus selections by the Stanford Wind Symphony

A PREMIERE, AN ANNIVERSARY, AND SPANISH FAVORITES
SSO FALL CONCERTS
Friday, 14 November 2025 • 7:30 PM
Sunday, 16 November 2025 • 2:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
QUINN MASON    Serenade for Strings (2025)   SSO Co-commission / California premiere
JOAQUIN RODRIGO   Concierto de Aranjuez   Eric Wang ’26, guitar – 2025 Concerto Competition winner
MANUEL DE FALLA   El sombrero de tres picos, Suite 2   Sean Tan ’27, conductor  
BELA BARTOK    The Miraculous Mandarin Suite   100th anniversary

The Stanford Symphony Orchestra co-commissioned Serenade for Strings by the extraordinary young composer-conductor Quinn Mason and performs the California premiere of this new work on a program that opens with music by two of the great Spanish composers of the 20th century, Manuel de Falla and Joaquin Rodrigo. The Miraculous Mandarin is a symbolic fable about the all-powerful force of love in even the most squalid conditions. Inspired by this story, written in 1916 by Melchior Lengyel, Béla Bartók composed the music from 1918-24 as the score for a pantomime ballet. The premiere took place in 1926 in Germany at the Cologne Opera House.

VERDI REQUIEM
SSO WINTER CONCERTS with the STANFORD SYMPHONIC CHORUS and UNIVERSITY SINGERS
Friday, 6 March 2026 • 7:30 PM
Saturday, 7 March 2026 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
BENJAMIN BRITTEN    Passacaglia from Peter Grimes
WILLIAM GRANT STILL    In memoriam: The Colored Soldiers Who Died for Democracy
    John Eells, conductor
GIUSEPPE VERDI    Messa da Requiem
    Mikayla Sager, soprano
    Malin Fritz Walrod, alto
    Benjamin Liupaogo, tenor
    Ashraf Sewailam, bass-baritone
    Stephen Sano, conductor

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA WINTER CONCERT
Friday, 27 February 2026 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
MANUEL DE FALLA   El Amor Brujo Suite
FRANZ SCHUBERT   Symphony No. 3 in D major
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART  Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter”
     John Eells, conductor

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA SPRING CONCERT
Friday, 15 May 2026 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
MAURICE RAVEL   Le tombeau de Couperin
TBA    Concerto
FELIX MENDELSSOHN   Symphony No. 4 in A major, “Italian”
      John Eells, conductor

SSO SPRING CONCERTS
Friday, 8 May 2026 • 7:30 PM
Saturday, 9 May 2026 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
IVETTE HERRYMAN RODRIGUEZ    Un danzón a mi manera
TBA    Concerto
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH    Symphony No. 5
     John Eells, conductor

2024-25 Season

STANFORD SUMMER SYMPHONY
Saturday, 26 July 2025 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
ROSSINI   La Gazza Ladra Overture  Aidan Yang, conductor
BEETHOVEN   Romances   Sean Mori ’25, violin
RESPIGHI    Fontane di Roma
BRAHMS    Symphony No. 2 in D major

The Stanford Summer Symphony hit a peak this past summer with a membership of over 90 musicians and a sold-out performance in Bing Concert Hall.

The Stanford orchestras concluded their 2024-25 season with spring concerts in May 2025.

CLASSICAL SHOWCASE STANFORD PHILHARMONIA Saturday, 10 May 2025 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES    Overture to L’Amant Anonyme
FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN    Symphony No. 82 in C major , “L’Ours” (The Bear)
W. A. MOZART   Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K. 453      Charles Li ’25, piano – 2025 Concerto Competition winner LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN    Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 36

MAHLER 6
SSO SPRING CONCERTS
Saturday, 17 May 2025 • 7:30 PM
Sunday, 18 May 2025 • 2:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
CAMERON CAMP ’25   Il viaggio dell’anima   world premiere
GUSTAV MAHLER    Symphony No. 6 in A minor

In previous concerts this season, Stanford Philharmonia has celebrated the Charles Ives sesquicentennial, featured a pair of Concerto Competition winners in the performance of a new double percussion concerto, performed the US premiere of Anthony Burgess’s Concerto Grosso for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra, and performed additional works by Mozart, Rossini, Bloch, and Sibelius. This season, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra has performed The Firebird (complete), Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Concerto Competition winner Spencer Cha ’26, and celebrated Maurice Ravel’s sesquicentennial with performances of his Daphnis et Chloé Suites I & II. SSO has also performed The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas, Atmosphères by Györgi Ligeti, the West Coast premiere of Battle-Pieces by SSO music director Paul Phillips, and, with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus, Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc.

Here’s a post about SSO’s June 2024 tour of France and Monaco.

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    West Coast premiere    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

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA WINTER CONCERT
Friday, 28 February 2025 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
ERNEST BLOCH    Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra with Piano Obligato
ANTHONY BURGESS    Concerto Grosso for Guitar Quartet and Orchestra in A minor   US premiere   Mēla Guitar Quartet
JEAN SIBELIUS    Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52

“Wizardry” was the theme of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 Halloween Concert. It’s always extra special when this annual concert occurs on 31 October, as it did this year.

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    Khorovod, 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 was celebrated with an all-Ligeti concert that featured the SSO and Stanford New Ensemble.

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

SSO FALL CONCERTS
Friday, 15 November 2024 • 7:30 PM
Sunday, 17 November 2024 • 2:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
PAUL DUKAS    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice   Sean Tan ’27, conductor SERGEI RACHMANINOFF   Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30   Spencer Cha ’26, piano – 2024 Concerto Competition winner
GYÖRGY LIGETI    Atmosphères    celebrating CCRMA’s 50th anniversary
IGOR STRAVINSKY    The Firebird  (complete ballet 1910)

SSO WINTER CONCERTS with the STANFORD SYMPHONIC CHORUS
Friday, 7 March 2025 • 7:30 PM
Saturday, 8 March 2025 • 7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall
PAUL PHILLIPS    Battle-Pieces  (texts by Herman Melville)  West Coast premiere  
    Ashraf Sewailam, bass-baritone
MAURICE RAVEL     Daphnis et Chloé, Suites 1 & 2  celebrating the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth FRANCIS POULENC    Stabat Mater   Mikayla Sager, soprano

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, and is described in the new book Origins of the Grateful Dead Orchestration Project.

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    Sean Tan ’27, conductor
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.