2023-2024 Season at a Glance

Classics V: Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns, Brammeier, & Podell – Saturday, May 4, 2024
7:30 PM

The season finale features Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Salome Jordania, and Saint-Saëns mighty Organ Symphony featuring the Forbes organ, played by Paul Woodring. We open with the world premiere of Meredith Brammeier’s Suite on Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe. Taken from a set of piano pieces and orchestrated for full orchestra, we are excited to feature Cal Poly Professor of Composition Meredith Brammeier on this season finale. We will also be premiering a new work by local composer Stefan Podell commissioned for the Symphony by Marti Lindholm.

Sponsored By Bert and Candace Forbes, The Foulke Correa Foundation, and Cricket Handler and Jerry Boots


Salome Jordania

Earlier this season: 

Classics I Rachmaninov Rocks – Saturday, October 7, 2023
7:30 PM

Back by popular demand, our opening Classics concert features pianist Ilya Yakushev performing Rachmaninov’s mighty Piano Concerto No.2. Flanking this work we will feature two American works – Fanfare for an Uncommon Man by John Stevens and Symphony No.1 in e minor by Florence Price. 

Sponsored By Jeff and Melodee Brady


Ilya Yakushev

Classics II California Festival – Saturday, November 4, 2023
7:30 PM

Celebrating the California Festival across the state, we open with the work Kotuku by New Zealand composer, Christopher Blake, in a West Coast premiere, including an appearance by Native American flutist and artisan, Tim Blueflint Ramel. Virtuoso bassist Xavier Foley performs his own Soul Bass Concerto commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony in 2022, in another west coast premiere. The remaining works celebrate America’s rich tradition of music written for film, including John Williams, Aaron Copland, and Ennio Morricone. SLO Symphony Board member and Arroyo Grande-based composer, Stefan Podell, will also premier an orchestral fanfare for the SLO Symphony, as part of a commissioning project begun at the 2023 Symphony Gala. No stranger to our SLO Symphony audience, we heard his Bass Concerto in 2021, we are excited to hear his latest composition.

6:15 PM – Pre Concert Film, Let Your Sisters Be
6:30 PM – Symphonic Forays
7:00 PM – Youth Symphony Lobby Concert

Sponsored By Len Jarrott and the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center


Xavier Foley

Classics III A Grand Occasion *  Youth Symphony Side By Side Performance – Saturday, February 3, 2024
7:30 PM

This concert features solo trumpeter Andrew Balio performing Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto. Mr. Balio performed a solo recital during the pandemic for our virtual concerts in 2021. We welcome him back and are excited to hear him ‘live’. We open with Patrice Rushen’s iconic Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory. This work is dedicated to and inspired by the memory of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and includes a quote from his I Have A Dream speech. We conclude with Brahms’ Symphony No.1 in C minor, side by side with the SLO Youth Symphony. 

Sponsored By Pat and Ben McAdams, Beverly Smith, and Minke WinklerPrins


Andrew Balio

Classics IV Bartok and Beethoven – Saturday, March 2, 2024
7:30 PM

This program features the return of violin virtuoso and Arroyo Grande resident, Gilles Apap, to perform Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and Bartok’s Violin Rhapsody No.1. His performance of Tchaikovsky in 2022, was sensational. The Hungarian spirit continues with Leo Weiner’s Hungarian Folk Dance Suite – a symphony in four movements based on Hungarian folk melodies and in a late romantic style. 

Sponsored By Melinda and Jim Avila and Susan Minker


Gilles Apap

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