Orchestras

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.

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.

2025-26 Season Program:

SSO HALLOWEEN CONCERT with the STANFORD WIND SYMPHONY

Friday, 31 October 2025 • 7:30 PM - Dinkelspiel Auditorium
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.

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

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.

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

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA FALL CONCERT - VIVA ITALIA

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

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

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
  Sean Tan '27, conductor
JOEL LOVE    A Lyric Concerto, Solace
   Zachary Lin, Class of 26' - 2026 Concerto Competition Winner
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH    Symphony No. 5     
  John Eells, conductor

STANFORD PHILHARMONIA SPRING CONCERT

Friday, 15 May 2026 • 7:30 PM - Bing Concert Hall

MAURICE RAVEL    Le tombeau de Couperin
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN    Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor
   Alex Tordjman, Graduate Student - 2026 Concerto Competition Winner
FELIX MENDELSSOHN    Symphony No. 4 in A major, “Italian”      
  John Eells, conductor