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| | Chamber Orchestra Concert
and Celebration
November 21, 2026
Program: Fanny Mendelssohn:
Overture in C major
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite, op. 40
Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485
We are launching a grand celebration of our 50th season with a breathtaking chamber concert for an evening of clarity and elegance. Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C opens the program, a work of poise and craftsmanship long overdue for its place in the spotlight. Grieg’s Holberg Suite follows, a string-only homage to the Baroque era filled with warmth and old-world charm. The evening closes with Schubert’s Symphony No. 5, a work of youthful lightness and melodic grace, written when the composer was just nineteen.
Following the performance, the festivities continue with a decadent champagne and dessert reception. Our special guest speakers will take the mic to share lively toasts and favorite memories from our five-decade journey. | Buy tickets |
| | Holiday Pops
December 19, 2026
10:30am and 1:00pm
Columbia Orchestra brings the whole family together for a concert filled with holiday cheer, kicking off with the jingling bells of Sleigh Ride. The centerpiece of the program is a beloved tradition: dancers from Dance Connections bring Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite to life on stage, from the delicate Sugar Plum Fairy to the playful Danses caractéristiques. Young audience members get a chance to stretch and sing along to “Frosty the Snowman,” before the Hanukkah Festival Overture lends its own joyful lights to the celebration. Music from Disney’s Frozen brings a touch of movie magic, and the concert closes in triumphant style with Anderson’s A Christmas Festival, a rousing medley of holiday favorites for the whole family to enjoy. | Buy tickets |
| | The Music of Gordon Goodwin
January 29, 2027 | Buy tickets |
| | Brahms "Fifth"
February 6, 2027
Program:
Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning)
Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 5
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1, op. 25, G minor (orchd. Schoenberg)
Guest Artist: Irina Muresanu
Our exploration of fifth symphonies continues with a little musical mischief. Brahms, of course, never wrote a Symphony No. 5, but Schoenberg’s dazzling orchestration of Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 gives us something that nearly resembles one, and it’s every bit as thrilling as the real thing. The evening opens with Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps (“Of a Spring Morning”), a brief, shimmering burst of color from a composer gone far too soon. Violinist Irina Muresanu then joins the orchestra for Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, a work of effortless charm and virtuosic flair. It’s an evening of fifths in spirit if not always in name, capped off by Brahms in disguise. | Buy tickets |
| | Tchaikovsky 5
March 13, 2027
Program:
Elgar: Cockaigne Overture
Gipps: Oboe Concerto
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Guest Artist: Alex Hayashi
The evening opens on English soil with Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture, a vibrant, brass-forward portrait of London life full of bustle and wit. Ruth Gipps, one of England’s most vital yet underplayed voices, follows with her Oboe Concerto, featuring Alex Hayashi in a work of lyrical warmth and inventive color. After intermission, the mood shifts entirely: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 takes center stage, a sweeping, deeply personal work built around a single haunting theme that returns again and again, transformed each time by fate. | Buy tickets |
| | Giving the Arrangers Their Due
March 26, 2027 | Buy tickets |
| | Rhapsody in Blue and the American Songbook
April 10, 2027
Program:
Mancini: Overture to a Pops Concert
Gershwin: An American In Paris
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Vocal Selections:
It Might As Well Be Spring
Over the Rainbow
Some Enchanted Evening
Porter/Whitney: Cole Porter Salute
Rodgers: The Carousel Waltz
Guest Artists: Mikael Darmanie and Stephanie Waters
Columbia Orchestra’s spring pops concert is a love letter to the golden age of American music. Henry Mancini’s Overture to a Pops Concert sets the tone with a burst of big-band energy, before vocalist Stephanie Waters takes the stage for a set of beloved American songbook favorites. A Cole Porter salute and Richard Rodgers’s sweeping Carousel Waltz round out the first half with wit, charm, and unabashed romance. After intermission, the evening turns to Gershwin: the vivid, jazz-inflected soundscape of An American in Paris, followed by pianist Mikael Darmanie in Rhapsody in Blue. It’s an evening of melody, memory, and American musical magic. | Buy tickets |
| | The Saxophones
May 14, 2027 | Buy tickets |
| | Mahler 5
May 22, 2027
Program:
Clyne: Restless Oceans
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Guest Artist: Luka Stefanovic
Columbia Orchestra closes its landmark 50th season with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, one of the towering achievements of the symphonic repertoire. The concert opens with Anna Clyne’s Restless Oceans, before cellist Luka Stefanovic joins for Haydn’s elegant Cello Concerto in C major. The evening closes with Mahler’s Fifth, a symphony of enormous scope and emotional range. It begins with a devastating funeral march, pushes through turmoil and struggle, and arrives at the hushed, aching beauty of the famous Adagietto before the finale bursts forth in radiant, triumphant celebration. It’s a fitting close to fifty remarkable years. | Buy tickets |