The Orchestra’s 43rd season continues on Friday, May 8, 2026 at the beautiful First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena. We’re thrilled to welcome Rachael Kim to the stage as soloist performing a the Violin Concerto by Julius Conus, a Russian composer of the Romantic era. Rachael is the winner of our 2025-2026 Young Artist Competition in the Open Division.

Mozart            Overture to The Marriage of Figaro
Florence Price    Dances in the Canebrakes
Shostakovich      Waltz No. 2
Julius Conus      Violin Concerto in E minor  
    Rachael Kim (violin), Young Artist Competition Winner (Open Division)
Arturo Márquez    Conga del Fuego Nuevo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart needs no introduction of course, and Dmitri Shostakovich is recognized these days. But the other composers on tonight’s program are less well known. We are happy to feature unfamiliar music that deserves to be heard. Florence Price was a prolific 20th century African-American composer, writing four symphonies, four concertos and other orchestra works, chamber music, songs and solo piano works. Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) is a Mexican composer of mainly orchestral music, and best known for his evocative danzóns, a dance of Cuban origin.  Julius Conus was Russian composer of the Romantic era who studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and (upon a recommendation by Tchaikovsky) at the Conservatoire de Paris. The Concerto is his best-known work, and was championed by Jascha Heifitz.

Our concerts are always free admission, and there is plenty of free parking.  Pre-Concert discussion at 7:15pm; Concert begins at 8:00pm.  The season concludes with our popular Annual Concert in the Park:

• June 6, 2026, 6:30pm, Sierra Madre Memorial Park

Video recordings of works from many of our past concerts are available on our YouTube channel.