Orchestras: Season

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 and Stravinsky Rite of Spring

Sunday, October 2, 2022, 3 p.m.
Mesa Arts Center - Ikeda Theatre, Mesa

• Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
• Cathal Breslin, piano
• Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

The ASU Symphony Orchestra begins the 2022-23 concert season joined by ASU faculty pianist Cathal Breslin with a thundering welcome back for live audiences! Breslin soars in Rachmaninoff’s epic Piano Concerto No. 2, followed by Stravinsky’s revolutionary Rite of Spring. Don’t miss out on the heart-pounding experience of these classical music favorites performed in the magnificent Ikeda Theatre.

ASU Symphony Orchestra with Vijay Iyer

Rites of Spring: Radhe Radhe and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Vijay Iyer: Radhe Radhe
  Vijay Iyer, piano
• Ches Smith, drums
• Prashant Bhargava, film director
• Stravinsky: Rite of Spring

Themes of ritual, transformation, and ecstasy emerge in this concert highlighting composer and pianist Vijay Iyer’s Radhe Radhe and Stravinsy’s Rite of Spring. Iyer joins the ASUSO on stage for his own work, a lavish visual and sonic ballet of sorts, featuring the interplay of live music and film documenting the Hindu ritual of Holi. Written to create an interplay between Stravinsky’s dark and rapturous ballet and Holi’s joyful and colorful celebration of springtime, Iyer and filmmaker Prashant Bhargava respond to the Rite of Spring through an extraordinary live encounter with chaos and ecstasy.

ASU Studio Orchestra

Mozart Symphony No. 40 and other masterworks
Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus

• Beethoven: Egmont Overture
• Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
• Mozart: Symphony No. 41

ASU graduate conductors take the podium in this intimate concert featuring Mozart’s beloved Symphony No. 40, Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Beethoven’s powerful, politically-inspired Egmont Overture.

Gridiron to ASU Gammage: A Musical Celebration of the Sun Devil Spirit featuring Gus Farwell

Friday, November 4, 2022, 7:30 p.m
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Former ASU quarterback and tenor Gus Farwell, who made worldwide headlines during the pandemic singing from his balcony in Barcelona, returns to the ASU Gammage stage to sing beloved works from the opera, broadway, and American songbook featuring the ASU Symphony Orchestra, Gospel Choir, ASU Marching Bands and faculty performers.

Many know Farwell from his time playing quarterback for the ASU football team or as the voice singing Go Devils Go! at touchdowns, but Farwell became famous worldwide in the early days of the pandemic for singing opera from his balcony in Barcelona. Every night for 65 days, after the applause for the front line medical workers, Farwell would sing to the gathered crowds, bringing hope and solace to a weary city.

Brought to you by ASU Gammage in partnership with SunDevil Athletics and ASU Salute to Service Week 2022, the program will include songs from Tosca, Carmen, La Bohème, the Wizard of Oz, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and more! Admission is free.

ASU Symphony Orchestra and ASU Philharmonia

The Power of Youth
Thursday, November 10, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Georges Bizet: Petite Suite Jeux d’Enfants
• Max Lu: New work, world premiere
• New work by ASU student composer, world premiere
• Charles Gounod: Marche Funèbre d’une Marionette
  ASU Philharmonia
• Bernstein: Overture to Candide
• Brahms: Symphony No. 3
  ASU Symphony Orchestra

The ASU Symphony and Philharmonia present “The Power of Youth” featuring two world premieres by emerging young composers, a series of youthful miniatures by Bizet and Gounod, and Bernstein’s comedic and popular Candide Overture. The concert concludes with the sublime catharsis of melody and drama in Symphony No. 3 by Brahms, who faced crippling pressure as a child prodigy and only found the creative power and confidence to fulfill his symphonic promise late in life.

ASU Chamber Orchestra

Concerto Competition Prize Winners
Thursday, December 1, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Frank Proto: A Carmen Fantasy for Double Bass & Orchestra
  Tzu-I Yang, bass
• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Concerto for Bassoon (1992)
  Leon Jin, bassoon
• Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

A perennial audience favorite, this year’s ASU Concerto Competition winners are once again sure to evoke the awe and imagination of audiences. Rising stars Leon Jin (bassoon) and Tzu-I Yang (bass) perform their prize-winning solos with the ASU Chamber Orchestra. The concert concludes with Ravel’s effervescent series of dances, Le Tombeau de Couperin.

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Boulanger
Sunday, February 12, 2023, 3 p.m.
Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, Prescott

Monday, February 13, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Lili Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)
• Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol, op.34
• Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4, op.36

The ASU Symphony Orchestra celebrates the beginning of the spring season with one the early 20th century’s lesser-known treasures, Lili Boulanger’s D'un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning), and continues with Rimsky Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, a virtuosic and sparkling fantasy on Spanish themes. Symphony No. 4, Tchaikovsky’s powerful drama of the struggle with the inescapable power of fate concludes the concert.

ASU Chamber Orchestra Strings

"Reflections of Hope and Home” in collaboration with DBR Lab
Monday, February 27, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Organ Hall, Tempe Campus

• Jessie Montgomery: Starburst
• Quinn Mason: Reflections on a Memorial
• Julius Eastman: Joy Boy
• Daniel Bernard Roumain: Isorhythmiclationistic from String Quartet No. 5 “Rosa Parks”
• Daniel Bernard Roumain: They Still Want to Kill Us (world premiere arrangement)
• Jessie Montgomery: I Want to Go Home

Join the ASU Chamber Orchestra, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and guests from ASU’s Theatre and Dance program in a meditative concert in celebration of Black History Month. In addition to Quinn Mason’s moving Reflections on a Memorial, Julius Eastman’s minimalist masterpiece Joy Boy, and Roumain’s ode to Rosa Parks Isorhythmicnationlistic, ASU Alumni soprano Yophi Adia Bost returns to sing a newly created arrangement of Roumain’s powerful They Still Want to Kill Us written to commemorate the 1921 Tulsa Massacre.

ASU Symphony Orchestra and Brooklyn Rider

Earth on Fire

Wednesday, April 5, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
6 p.m. lobby doors open for exhibits
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus  
 

Ruth Crawford Seeger: Rissolty Rossolty

• Colin Jacobson: A Short While To Be Here... (based on American Folk Songs as collected and transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger)
• Michael Abels: Global Warming
• Osvaldo Golijov: Tenebrae for string quartet (Brooklyn Rider)
• Gabriela Lena Frank: Contested Eden
• Siamak Aghaei/Colin Jacobsen: Ascending Bird: Introduction and Dance for Orchestra, (arr. for full orchestra by Michael P. Atkinson)

As part of the prestigious ASU Visiting Quartet Residency Program, the critically acclaimed string quartet Brooklyn Rider joins the ASU Symphony Orchestra in a rich tapestry of musical selections exploring major issues facing a global, interconnected society on a warming planet. With its intrepid musical appetite, the quartet will act as leaders, soloists, and collaborators throughout the evening on this fascinating and thought-provoking musical journey. Works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Michael Abels, Gabriela Lena Frank and others. 

The ASU Gammage lobby will be open at 6 p.m. to all ticket holders to experience exhibits and art displays on topics of climate change and sustainability. Participating artists and scholars include ASU faculty and students from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, the ASU School of Sustainability, the College of Global Futures, ASU Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Environmental Design, The Design School, the School of Molecular Science and the School of Art.

ASU Studio Orchestra

Petrushka, Don Giovanni and Beethoven Symphony No. 4
Thursday, April 20, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus

• Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
• Mozart: Don Giovanni (selections)
• Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947), arr. Josh Oxford

Hear Stravinsky’s brilliant Petrushka, the story of three puppets and the magician that animates them, reimagined for the intimate setting of Katzin Concert Hall. The program will also feature arias and recitatives from Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni featuring singers from ASU’s renowned Music Theatre and Opera program. The concert will begin with Beethoven’s exuberant Symphony No. 4. 

ASU Symphony Orchestra and ASU Choirs

Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Friday, April 28, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Carlos Simon: Fate Now Conquers
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
• Kaitlyn Sabrowksy, soprano
• Stephanie Weiss, mezzo-soprano
• Carlos Feliciano, tenor
• Gordon Hawkins, bass

The ASUSO and ASU Choirs celebrate the end of the 2022-23 season with Beethoven’s monumental utopian vision of the unity of humankind, Symphony No. 9. The concert begins with Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, a brilliant new work inspired by an emotional journal entry from Ludwig van Beethoven’s notebooks.

Stringtastic!

September 30, 2022, 7 p.m.
Tempe High School, Tempe

The ASU Philharmonia begins the 2022-23 concert season by honoring the string sections of the orchestra and featuring them in their own ensemble. We will also be honoring the life of one of our very own cello player, Alec Berg, gone too soon. This evening is a meaningful celebration of string ensemble music and the wide palette of colors and emotions it has the power of evoking. We will also be joined by the Tempe High School Strings and their new director: Osvaldo Mendoza for a side-by-side at the end of the concert.

• Earl Manneein: I Can Read Metal
• Edward Elgar: Sospiri, op.70
• Felix Mendelssohn: Sinfonia No.7, D minor
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux, Le Cygne
• Quinn Mason: Irish Dance Suite for String Orchestra
• Pascual Marquina, España Cani (side-by-side)

ASU Symphony Orchestra and ASU Philharmonia

The Power of Youth
Thursday, November 10, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

• Georges Bizet: Petite Suite Jeux d’Enfants
• Max Lu: New work, world premiere
• New work by ASU student composer, world premiere
• Charles Gounod: Marche Funèbre d’une Marionette
  ASU Philharmonia
• Bernstein: Overture to Candide
• Brahms: Symphony No. 3
  ASU Symphony Orchestra

The ASU Symphony and Philharmonia present “The Power of Youth” featuring two world premieres by emerging young composers, a series of youthful miniatures by Bizet and Gounod, and Bernstein’s comedic and popular Candide Overture. The concert concludes with the sublime catharsis of melody and drama in Symphony No. 3 by Brahms, who faced crippling pressure as a child prodigy and only found the creative power and confidence to fulfill his symphonic promise late in life.

ASU Maroon and Gold Band and Philharmonia

Tuesday, February 14, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Join us on Valentine’s Day for a special event where the Maroon and Gold Band joins in perfect harmony with the ASU Philharmonia.

• Elgar: Salut d’Amour, op.12
• Sergei Golovko: Russian Marimba Concerto with concerto competition winner Angelita Ponce Johann Strauss Jr.: Frühlingsstimmen, op.410

ASU Philharmonia: Blossom

Monday, April 24, 2023, 7.30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Join us as ASU Philharmonia concludes its season with an exciting collaboration with the Phoenix Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for an evening of inspiring music. William Grant Still and Astor Piazolla are some of the featured composers as well as the 2021-22 ASU composition competition winner Deanna Rusnock presenting her piece, Concerto for the Growing Pianist, featuring esteemed ASU faculty Andrew Campbell on the piano.

• William Grant Still: Serenade
• Deanna Rusnock: Concerto for the Growing Pianist
  Andrew Campbell, piano soloist
• Astor Piazzolla: Sinfonietta 

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, September 25, 2021, 7:30 p.m. 
Madison Center for the Arts, Phoenix

The ASU Symphony Orchestra welcomes audiences back to the thrill of live, in-person music making with Stravinsky’s ecstatic Firebird Suite. In its debut at the Madison Center for the Arts, the ASUSO also presents Sound and Fury, Anna Clyne’s recent masterpiece which takes its inspiration from the works of Haydn and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The concert begins with Brahms’ beloved “Haydn Variations.” 

Brahms: Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn
Anna Clyne: Sound and Fury (2019)
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite

ASU Chamber Orchestra

Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 7:30 p.m.
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

Saturday, October 23, 2021, 7:30 p.m. 
Madison Center for the Arts, Phoenix

The ASU Chamber Orchestra presents two of ASU’s emerging stars: DMA composer Daniel Taborda Higuita, Winner of the 2020 ASU Composition Competition, who has written a new work for the ASUCO, as well as bassist Nathaniel De la Cruz, Winner of the 2021 ASU Concerto Competition, who will perform Frank Proto’s virtuosic Nine Variants on Paganini. The concert begins with Haydn’s The Soul of the Philosopher and concludes with a world premiere performance of a newly-created edition of Beethoven’s brilliant Symphony No. 8.

• Haydn: Overture to Orfeo ed Euridice (The Soul of the Philosopher)
• Frank Proto: Nine Variants on Paganini (2002)
  Nathaniel De La Cruz, bass          
• Daniel Taborda Higuita: New Work (2021) (World Premiere)
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 8 (World Premiere, Nicholas Kitchen Edition)

ASU Studio Orchestra and ASU Chamber Winds

Sunday, November 14, 2021, 3 p.m. 
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Winds and Studio Orchestra present ASU’s graduate wind and orchestral conductors in a program offering works for winds and Beethoven’s brilliant Symphony No. 7.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
Other works, TBD

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, November 20, 2021, 7:30 p.m. 
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

In collaboration with the reboot of ASU’s SolPower Hip Hop festival, the ASU Symphony premieres Carlos Simon’s Graffiti performed with art created in real time by internationally renowned graffiti artists. A new work by ASU composer Garth Paine begins the concert and includes sounds amplified by the audience’s own cell phones as part of the orchestral landscape. The concert also features pianist John Solari, Winner of the 2020 ASU Concerto Competition, performing Ravel’s American jazz club inspired Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and concludes with Arturo Márquez’s exuberant Danzón No. 2.

• Garth Paine: FraKture (2021) (World Premiere)
• Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand 
  John Solari, Piano 
• Carlos Simon: Graffiti (2021) (World Premiere)
• Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2 (1994)

ASU Chamber Orchestra with Xavier Foley

Thursday, February 10, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Mesa Arts Center, Mesa

The ASU Chamber Orchestra appears at the Mesa Arts Center as part of an evening with bassist Xavier Foley featuring For Justice and Peace, a new work co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Sphinx Organization and Ev’ry Voice, a musical homage to James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem.

• Xavier Foley: Ev’ry Voice
  Jeffery Meyer, conductor and music director
• Xavier Foley: For Justice and Peace
  Sunny Xia, conductor

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Sunday, February 20, 2022, 4 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Baritone Nathan De'Shon Myers joins the ASU Symphony Orchestra performing Nkeiru Okoye’s tragic and thought-provoking Invitation to a Die-In, a work that responds to the murders of Black men, starkly telling the story from the perspective of the deceased, their families, police officers, and citizens on all sides of the issue. The work is preceded by Valerie Coleman’s newly-written Fanfare for Uncommon Times and Molly Joyce’s haunting Over and Under for organ and orchestra. The concert concludes with 2021 ASU Concerto Competition winner Vladislav Kosminov performing Prokofiev’s dazzling Piano Concerto No. 3.

• Valerie Coleman: Fanfare for Uncommon Times (2021)
• Molly Joyce: Over and Under (2016)
• Nkeiru Okoye: Invitation to a Die-In (2017)
  Nathan De'Shon Myers, Baritone
• Prokofiev: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3
  Vladislav Kosminov, piano

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Young Person’s Concert
Thursday, March 3, 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.  
Madison Center for the Arts, Phoenix

The ASU Symphony Orchestra presents a concert aimed to engage, inspire, and educate a young audience.

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Sunday, April 3, 2022, 3 p.m.
Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, Prescott

Saturday, April 9, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Winners of the 2020 and 2021 ASU Concerto Competition Julian Nguyen, violin, and Ty Chiko, baritone, headline this concert with works by Korngold and Mahler. The concert begins with the blazing energy of Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture and concludes with Debussy’s shimmering and tempestuous masterpiece La Mer.

• Grażyna Bacewicz: Overture
• Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer)
  Ty Chiko, baritone
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Violin Concerto, I. Moderato nobile        
  Julian Nguyen, violin
• Debussy: La Mer

ASU Studio Orchestra

Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe campus

Conductors Sergio Freeman, Kara Piatt, Phil Vallejo and Sunny Xuecong Xia lead the ASU Studio Orchestra in Brahms Symphony No. 3 as well as selections from the opera repertoire featuring guest vocalists from ASU’s Music Theatre and Opera program.

• Beethoven: Coriolan Overture, No. 3
• Excerpts from Puccini's Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Edgar, and Tosca
• Brahms: Symphony No. 3

ASU Symphony Orchestra

Saturday, April 23, 2022, 8 p.m.
Nelson Fine Arts Plaza, Tempe Campus

Join the ASU Symphony Orchestra for an outdoor evening concert featuring Berlioz’s "Roman Carnival" Overture and Respighi’s popular "Pines of Rome."  Food trucks BJs Mexican Food and 99Sunnys Thai Kitchen will be on site beginning at 6 p.m., so all are encouraged to enjoy a bite before the concert on the Nelson Fine Arts Plaza!  Admission is free.

ASU Symphony Orchestra and ASU Wind Symphony

Carl St.Clair, guest conductor
Thursday, April 28, 2022, 7:30 p.m. 
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Internationally renowned conductor Carl St.Clair leads the ASU Symphony Orchestra and ASU Wind Symphony in the 2021-22 season finale with works by Berlioz and Ticheli, ending with Respighi’s thunderous Pines of Rome.

• Frank Ticheli: Rest
• Ticheli: Blue Shades
  ASU Wind Symphony
• Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
• Respighi: Pines of Rome
  ASU Symphony Orchestra

Celebration

Thursday, October 7, 2021, 7:30 p.m.
The Madison Center for the Arts, Phoenix

The ASU Philharmonia invites you to our first party of the 2021-22 season! The orchestra celebrates being back together in-person and sharing the joy of live music with audiences performing works by Fauré, Price, and Coleman, as well as several that will make the brass section shine by Márquez, Méndez, and Moncayo.

• Gabriel Fauré: Masques et Bergamasques, op.112, Overture
• Florence Price: Symphony No. 3, Mvt 3 and 4
• Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2
• Valerie Coleman: Umoja: Anthem of Unity
• Rafael Méndez: Tre-Méndez Polka
• José Pablo Moncayo: Huapango

Legends

Tuesday, November 30, 2021, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Staff Appreciation Concert: dedicated to all the wonderful staff members at ASU who make life on campus safe and smooth for everyone. The music is our way of saying thank you for all you do!

The ASU Philharmonia presents an evening of storytelling through meaningful collaboration.  Exploring the sonic worlds of Mozart, Coleridge-Taylor, Piazzolla, Bartók, and Ravel, the Philharmonia collaborates with ASU Professor Carley Conder’s dance class, adding a new dimension to the music presented on stage. Also featured is a world premiere created out of our ongoing collaboration with ASU Professor Fernanda Navarro’s composition class.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Magic Flute Overture
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Novelette No. 1
• Ástor Piazzolla: Tangazo: Variations on Buenos Aires
• Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra Sz.56 BB 68
• ASU Composition Student: New composition
• Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite

Resilience

Thursday, February 17, 2022, 7.30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

The ASU Philharmonia presents our very first collaboration with the ASU Gospel Choir, led by Professor Nathan De’Shon Myers! The concert begins with theThird Symphony of Florence Price. Price was an inspiring example of resilience who in 1933 became the first African-American woman composer to be performed by a major American orchestra (Chicago Symphony). In the second half of the program, the orchestra collaborates with the Gospel Choir and celebrates this wonderful new artistic union.

• Florence Price: Symphony No. 3
• Other works to be announced

Metamorphosis

Friday, April 8, 2022, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

In collaboration with the ASU Choral Union led by Professor David Schildkret, the ASU Philharmonia presents an evening inspired by metamorphosis and transcendence, performing works by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, and a world-premiere by Jocelyn Chambers.

• Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont Overture
• Jocelyn Chambers: New commission, Title TBD (World Premiere)
• Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria

Innovative programming and ground-breaking guest artists!

The ASU Symphony and Chamber Orchestras moved their innovative programming and ground-breaking guest artists to virtual hi-tech learning modalities for the 2020-21 season.

The conductors and directors of the orchestras, wind bands, Philharmonia and athletic bands collaborated to create a robust new curriculum based on the pillars of experiential learning – digital recording technology; guest artist interaction; new work commissioning and development; diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; community engagement and student leadership.

The groups recorded over 60 works, connected with over 20 guests artists, collaborated with 17 ASU student composers in the creation of brand-new pieces and commissioned composers Steven Bryant, Carlos Simon, Allan Daleus and Kevin Day. 

The ensemble also recorded works by Beethoven, Dvorak, Janacek, Marc Mellits, Jessie Montgomery, Steve Reich, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Stravinsky, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, and new works by ASU composers.

Guest artists included:

• Marin Alsop, conductor
• Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, conductor
• Steven Bryant, composer
• Aaron Dworkin, founder of the Sphinx Organization
• Evan Chapman and Kevin Eikenberg, Four/Ten Media
• Marc Bamuthi Joseph, spoken word artist
• Nicholas Kitchen, violinist
• Alex Laing, clarinetist
• Jessie Montgomery, violinist and composer
• Tito Munoz, conductor
• Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer
• Carl St. Clair, conductor

 Innovative programming and groundbreaking guest artists. The symphony reimagined.

Season brochure

Northern Lights: Centenary Celebration of Sibelius’ 5th Symphony

Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Katherine McLin, Violin

ASU Symphony Orchestra opens its 2019-20 season with Sibelius’ soaring Symphony No. 5 in honor of the work’s centenary. The concert begins with Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks’ evocative concerto for violin and string orchestra “Tālā gaisma” or “Distant Light” featuring ASU’s Katherine McLin as violin soloist.

• Pēteris Vasks: Violin Concerto (Distant Light; Tālā gaisma)
  Katherine McLin, Violin
• Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

Towards a More Perfect Union, ASU Gammage Beyond

Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, 7 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Jeffery Meyer and Daniel Roumain, Co-directors

ASU Gammage in collaboration with the ASU Symphony Orchestra invites you to a theatrical concert with film and spoken word, highlighting new works and powerful compositions that speak to the challenges of our time. Works by Tamar-kali (Mudbound – Academy Award Nominated Film), Daniel Bernard Roumain (New York Times top 10 classical new works), Joel Thompson (ASU Projecting All Voices Fellow), Carlos Simon (Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow), renowned spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and Grammy®-winners Joan Tower and Martha Gonzalez.

• Joan Tower: Made in America
• Martha Gonzalez: Vendedores en Accion & Fandango Fronterizo (arr. Noah Luna) (World Premiere)
• Carlos Simon: This Land (World Premiere) (ASU Symphony & ASU Beyond Competition Winner)
• Tamar-Kali Brown: Excerpts from Red Rice, Cotton and Indigo (World Premiere)
• Daniel Bernard Roumain: Cipher (World Premiere)
• Joel Thompson: La Lluvia (World Premiere)

ASU Orchestral Strings

Wednesday, Oct. 9, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free admission

ASU Chamber Orchestra, Graduate Recital
Yun Song Tay, Conductor
Francisco Hernández Bolaños, Conductor

The strings of the ASU Chamber Orchestra immerse the listener in a landscape of works spanning over a century from the late romantic to the 20th century avant-garde under the batons of ASU Assistant Conductors Yun Song Tay and Francisco Hernández Bolaños.

• Takemitsu: Three Film Scores
• Ligeti: Ramifications
• Elgar: Serenade for Strings
• Britten: Simple Symphony

Schoenberg’s New World: Schoenberg, Korngold, Copland

Friday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Michelle Di Russo, Conductor
Jennifer Son, Cello (2019 ASU Concerto Competition Winner)

This concert features a dynamic collection of works written or revised in post-World War II United States. The first half of the concert presents works by Schoenberg and Korngold, both Austro-Hungarian Jewish refugees working in the United States after fleeing Europe in the 1930s. The concert concludes with Copland’s monumental Symphony No. 3, a work that some have called the “Great American Symphony,” expressing the spirit of a hopeful nation emerging from a generation of war.

ASU Professor Sabine Feisst, a world-renowned expert on Schoenberg, will offer a pre-concert talk revealing the historical and biographical context of these works. Her most recent book, Schoenberg’s Correspondence with American Composers, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018.

• Schoenberg: Five Pieces
• Korngold: Cello Concerto
• Jennifer Son, Cello
• Copland: Symphony No. 3

ASU Studio Orchestra Fall Conductor’s Concert

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free admission

Graduate students in conducting lead the ASU Studio Orchestra in an exciting evening of music.

Mozart’s Kings: Coronation Mass and Jupiter Symphony

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Orchestra
ASU Chamber Singers and Choral Union
Jeffery Meyer & David Schildkret, Conductors
Jiji Kim, Guitar

Join the ASU Chamber Orchestra and ASU Choirs in two of Mozart’s most celebrated masterworks. Guitar virtuoso and ASU faculty member Jiji Kim brings a slice of modernity to the concert, performing Hilary Purrington’s 2019 concerto Harp of Nerves.

• Mozart: Coronation Mass, K.317, C major
• Hilary Purrington: Harp of Nerves (Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra) (2019)
  Jiji Kim, Guitar
• Mozart: Symphony No.41, K.551, C major (Jupiter)

ASU Concerto Competition Finalist Concert

Thursday, Jan. 30, 4 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free Admission

Join us as the finalists in the 2020 ASU Concerto Competition compete for the chance to perform with ASU's top ensembles.

Ravel, Kaminsky, and Beethoven Pastoral Symphony

Saturday, Feb. 8, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Ursula Oppens, Piano

The ASU Chamber Orchestra joins the global celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday with Beethoven’s beloved Pastoral Symphony. The Grammy nominated pianist Ursula Oppens joins the ASUCO on the first half of the concert performing Laura Kaminsky’s Piano Concerto.

• Maurice Ravel: Ma Mère l'Oye (Mother Goose)
• Laura Kaminsky: Piano Concerto (2011)
  Ursula Oppens, Piano
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”

Mazzoli, Pann, and Dvorak Symphony No. 8
 

Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Sunday, March 1, 2020, 4:00 p.m.
Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer and Yun Song Tay, Conductors
Christopher Creviston, Saxophone

The first half of this concert presents two thrilling new works by living American composers: the other-worldly Sinfonia for Orbiting Spheres by Missy Mazzoli (Chicago Symphony Composer-in-Residence) and a world premiere performance of a new concerto written for the ASU Symphony Orchestra and Saxophonist Christopher Creviston by Carter Pann (2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Music). The concert closes with Dvorak’s joyous, Bohemian-inspired Symphony No. 8.

• Missy Mazzoli: Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) (2014/16)
• Carter Pann: Saxophone Concerto (World Premiere) (2020)
  Christopher Creviston, Saxophone
• Dvořák: Symphony No. 8

Weber, Liszt and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5 (CANCELED)

Thursday, April 2, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Sunday, April 5, 2020, 3:00 p.m.
Yavapai College Performing Arts Center, Prescott

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Michelle Di Russo and Francisco Hernández Bolaños, Conductors
Aoshuang Li, Piano (2019 ASU Concerto Competition Winner)

Virtuosic romantic works by Weber and Liszt provide the first-half counterpoint to Shostakovich’s searing Symphony No. 5, written at the height of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. Ever since its storied premiere in St. Petersburg in 1937, it continues to be performed and remembered among the most moving and dramatic works of its time.

• Weber: Overture to Der Freischütz
• Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1
  Aoshuang Li, Piano
• Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No.5

ASU Studio Orchestra Spring Conductor’s Concert (CANCELED)

Monday, April 13, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free admission

Graduate students in conducting lead the ASU Studio Orchestra in an exciting evening of music.

Mahler Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" (CANCELED)

Thursday, April 30, 2020, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
ASU Chamber Singers, Choral Union and Concert Choir
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Carole FitzPatrick, Soprano
Stephanie Weiss, Mezzo-Soprano

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (1894)

The ASUSO is joined by Carole FitzPatrick, Stephanie Weiss and the ASU Choirs to end the 2019-20 season with Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2. An all-embracing narrative continuing the metaphysical questions posed by Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the work immerses the listener in a journey through life and death, traversing funeral rites and the marching dead, existential crisis, and finally, the soul’s ultimate redemption.

Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski

Saturday, Sept.22, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Michelle Nam, Piano, 2018 Concerto Competition Winner

The ASU Symphony Orchestra opens the 2018-19 season with a powerhouse program of virtuosic works by Strauss, Rachmaninoff and Lutosławski. The program opens with Strauss’s explosive tone poem Don Juan, which launched him to international fame when he was only 25 years old. The Rachmaninoff Rhapsody continues the journey with its sweeping brilliance, and the stirring folk melodies of Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra conclude the evening.

• Strauss: Don Juan
• Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
• Michelle Nam, Piano, 2018 ASU Concerto Competition Winner
• Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra

Graduate Recital

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free admission

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Michelle Di Russo and Yun Song Tay, Conductors

Assistant conductor Yun Song Tay leads the ASU Chamber Orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, an 1832 masterwork that still resonates in culture today through concert halls, movies, and video games. Assistant conductor Michelle Di Russo then leads the orchestra in Anna Clyne’s powerful meditation on love and loss that draws from the poetry of Thich Nhat Hanh. The concert concludes with Di Russo conducting Mozart’s soaring Symphony No. 29.

• Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture
• Anna Clyne: Within Her Arms (2009)
• Mozart: Symphony No. 29

Frankenstein!!: Part of the ASU Frankenstein Bicentennial Project

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018, 3 p.m.
Mesa Arts Center, Mesa

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
David Schildkret, Chansonnier

The ASU Chamber Orchestra embarks on a musical exploration of Frankenstein themes as part of the ASU Frankenstein Bicentennial Project. Concerts at ASU Gammage and the Mesa Arts Center present HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!!, featuring a fantastical protagonist and an ensemble that blurs the lines between classical and popular music. The second half of the concert will present the 1931 black and white film Frankenstein with Shapiro’s film score performed live. Guests are invited to arrive an hour before each concert to participate in Frankenstein-related activities and explore the many facets of the Frankenstein story through innovative projects and perspectives from across the disciplines.

• Gruber: Frankenstein!!
  David Schildkret, Chansonnier
• Frankenstein (1931 film) with music by Michael Shapiro

Bernstein MASS

Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 18, 2018, 2 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra, Music Theatre and Opera, ASU Choirs and Phoenix Boys Choir
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Jubilant Sykes, Baritone

Leonard Bernstein’s remarkable and controversial work commissioned for the opening of The Kennedy Center, Mass, is performed in celebration of the American icon’s centennial. The production features renowned guest artist Jubilant Sykes as the Celebrant alongside the ASU Symphony Orchestra, ASU Choirs, Music Theatre and Opera, the School of Film, Dance and Theatre and the Phoenix Boys Choir​. Written at a time when the world was facing profound crises of identity, faith, and morality Mass resonates as deeply today as it did during the Vietnam War. It is a piece that celebrates the boundaries Bernstein expanded as a composer and artist, as well as the profound depths that are possible in a journey through faith and doubt.

• Bernstein: Mass
  Jubilant Sykes, Baritone

Shostakovich and Strings

Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, 4 p.m.
Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Yuhui Li, Piano, 2018 Concerto Competition Winner

The ASU Symphony Orchestra presents a dramatic program of Eastern European works influenced by events of World War II. Core repertoire works by Shostakovich and Bartok are performed in dialogue with the avant-garde Threnody and the masterpiece of neoclassicism Concerto for String Orchestra by pioneering female composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

• Bacewicz: Concerto for String Orchestra
• Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2
  Yuhui Li, Piano, 2018 ASU Concerto Competition Winner
• Penderecki: Threnody to The Victims of Hiroshima
• Bartok: Divertimento

Graduate Recital

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus
Free Admission

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Michelle Di Russo, Yun Song Tay and Francisco Hernández, Conductors

Three assistant conductors from the studio of Jeffery Meyer present an enticing and eclectic chamber orchestra program of works by Webern, Dvorak and Mihaud.

• Webern: Concerto op. 24
• Dvorak: Serenade for Wind Instruments
• Milhaud: La Création du monde, op. 81

Brahms Symphony No. 2

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Robert Spring, Clarinet

The world premiere of Rodney Rogers’ Clarinet Concerto will be performed by the ASU Chamber Orchestra and clarinetist Robert Spring. In addition to featuring these two world-renowned ASU faculty members, this must-see concert opens with Beethoven’s heroic Leonore Overture No. 3 and concludes with Brahms’ radiant Second Symphony.

• Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3
• Rodney Rogers: Clarinet Concerto (2019) (World Premiere)
  Robert Spring, clarinet
• Brahms: Symphony No. 2

The Molly Blank Fund Performance for Students concert

Wednesday, March 27, 2019, 10:30 a.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Michelle Di Russo, Yun Song Tay and Francisco Hernández, Conductors

ASU’s three orchestral assistant conductors lead an educational and entertaining program for K-12 students featuring the music of Mussorgsky and Wagner. For more information, please visit ASU Gammage Performances for Students.

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition and Projeto Arcomusical

Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3 p.m.
Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Projeto Arcomusical, Berimbau Ensemble

The ASU Symphony Orchestra welcomes Projeto Arcomusical, a world music sextet that reimagines the Afro-Brazilian musical bow, the Berimbau. The group will premiere Elliott Cole’s new concerto written for the ensemble and the ASU Symphony Orchestra, as well as an opening work by one of the group’s own members, Alexis C. Lamb. Mussorgsky’s blazing masterwork Pictures at an Exhibition brings the program to a close.

• Alexis C. Lamb: Splintered Light (2019) (World Premiere)
• Elliot Cole: Roda Grande (2019) (World Premiere)
  Projeto Arcomusical, Berimbau Ensemble
• Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)

Stravinsky and Wagner

Thursday, April 18, 2019, 7:30, p.m.
Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Gordon Hawkins, Baritone
Stephanie Weiss, Mezzo-Soprano

The ASU Symphony brings the 2018-19 season to a close with Petrushka, Stravinsky’s second masterpiece written for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, depicting the deadly love triangle between puppets who suddenly come to life. The first half presents some of Wagner’s most inspired music from his greatest operas featuring ASU’s own Gordon Hawkins and Stephanie Weiss.

• Wagner: Ride of the Walküre from Die Walküre
• Wagner: Selections from Lohengrin and Die Walküre
  Gordon Hawkins, Baritone, Stephanie Weiss, Mezzo-Soprano
• Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947)

Phenomenon Scheherazade & Beyond

Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor

The ASU Symphony Orchestra will open its 2017-18 season with a diverse and innovative musical journey. Guest composer Narong Prangcharoen (Thailand) and sitar virtuoso Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan (India) will join the ASUSO, (re)framing Philip Glass' Offering in celebration of his 80th birthday. The journey will conclude with the 1001 nights of Rimsky·Korsakov's classic Scheherazade.

Modern Classics Adams, Ligeti & Stravinsky

Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
David Russell, cellist

Hailed as "superb" and "incisive" in The Boston Globe, cellist David Russell joins the ASU Chamber Orchestra in Ligeti's imaginatively intense Cello Concerto. The concert will continue with the mystical and meditative Shaker Loops by preeminent American composer John Adams in honor of his 70th birthday. Stravinsky's dazzling Pu/cine/la Suite will complete the evening.

Level Up: Music from Video Games

Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
ASU Gospel Choir

Don't miss the ASU Symphony Orchestra and Gospel Choir performing the music from Tetris, Mario, Halo, and the Grammy-winning soundtrack to Civilizations IV. The audience will also experience music by Tempe's own Christopher Norby, who teaches video game composing at ASU.

Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet Mozart, Debussy & Prokofiev

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor

The ASU Symphony Orchestra presents one of today's most influential and renowned pianists, Gilbert Kalish, performing Mozart's C minor masterpiece. The program continues with Debussy's ground-breaking Afternoon of a Faun and concludes with Prokofiev's exquisite Romeo & Juliet.

Graduate Recital: Prokofiev, Johnson, Brahms & Rózsa

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Mark Alpizar and Kamna Gupta, Conductors

The ASU Symphony Orchestra is led by graduate conductors Mark Alpizar and Kamna Gupta featuring a world premiere performance of ASU graduate composer Brice L. Johnson's Zambiza and works by Prokofiev, Brahms and Mikl6s R6zsa.

From the New World: Ko, Hidgon & Dvorak

Friday, Jan. 26, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Why We Touch, 6:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor

The ASU Symphony Orchestra is proud to introduce the innovative, cross-disciplinary artist Tonia Ko to the valley. A one-of-a-kind pre-concert interactive performance will explore the unique musical capacities of everyday materials. The evening's main event will feature Ko's strange Sounds and Explosions Worldwide, Canadian percussionist Paul Vaillancourt performing Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto and Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Graduate Recital: Wagner & Mozart

Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe Campus

ASU Chamber Orchestra
Kamna Gupta, Conductor

The ASU Chamber Orchestra is led by graduate conductor Kamna Gupta performing Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, written as a birthday present to his wife, Cosima, and Mozart's dynamic Symphony N° 25.

Beethoven Symphony N°5 Mozart, De Falla & Beethoven

Thursday, Mar. 1, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Stephanie Weiss, Mezzo-Soprano

ASU's Stephanie Weiss sings De Falla's remarkably beautiful and evocative El Amor Brujo Suite inspired by the songs and dialect of the Andalusian Spanish gypsies. The concert opens with an un-conducted performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni Overture and ends with Beethoven's immortal and heroic Symphony N° 5.

Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique Mahler, Roumain & Berlioz

Wednesday, Mar. 28, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe

Monday, April 2, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Daniel Bernard Roumain, composer
Gordon Hawkins, baritone
ASU Gospel Choir

 In two evenings of concerts at the arts centers of Tempe and Scottsdale, the ASU Symphony Orchestra presents a collaboration with ASU's Daniel Bernard Roumain (composer), Gordon Hawkins (baritone), and the ASU Gospel Choir. Roumain's Harvest focuses on the collective culture of the African-American spiritual, while Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer looks at the composer's own experience of loss and regret. The performance concludes with Berlioz's wild and radical Symphonie Fantastique.

Mahler Symphony N°1 Poulenc & Mahler

Thursday, April 26, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
ASU Gammage, Tempe Campus

ASU Symphony Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, Conductor
Danielle Talamantes, soprano

The ASU Symphony Orchestra is joined by ASU's combined choirs in Poulenc's exuberant Gloria featuring Mexican-American guest soprano Danielle Talamantes. The second half concludes the 2017-18 season with Mahler's revolutionary and triumphant first symphony.