SEASON
JAYCE OGREN, MUSIC DIRECTOR
“Thank you for your support, for your energy, your applause, and your love of music.”
Welcome to the 2026-2027 Monterey
Symphony season! Now in my fifth year as Music Director, I feel so fortunate to make music with this outstanding orchestra, and to be part of such an extraordinary community.
I make a point of bringing world-class, dynamic soloists to the Symphony, and this season’s lineup is absolutely stellar. Making their Monterey Symphony debuts, Jonathan Biss is one of America’s greatest living pianists, and Alexi Kenney is a young superstar of the violin. Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee—husband and wife, and both outstanding piano soloists in their own right—return to the Monterey Symphony as a powerful piano duo with Dvořák’s tuneful Slavonic Dances and the world premiere of a Concerto for Two Pianos by Chinese-American composer Chen Yi.
Our collaboration with the San Francisco-based chorus VOLTI continues with Verdi’s dramatic Te Deum and Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 2, Resurrection , the first ever Monterey Symphony performances of this beloved, overwhelming work.
In addition to iconic favorites like Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4, we’ll present something very special in March. Brahms wrote just four symphonies, considered by many to be the greatest works in the orchestral repertoire. In one weekend, the Monterey Symphony will play them all. It’s a beautiful opportunity to hear these sublime works in close proximity to one another, and I very much hope you’ll join us.
Thank you for your support, for your energy, your applause, and your love of music.
See you at the Sunset Center!
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
Love Letter to New York
September 15 and 16, 2026 at 6:30 PM Forest Theater, Carmel
BARBER FIEV
COPL AND PROKO
OCTOBER 17-18, 2026
APPALACHIAN SPRING + ALEXI KENNEY
October 17 and 18, 2026
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
Franz BERWALD
Overture to Estrella di Soria
COPLAND
Appalachian Spring Suite
PROKOFIEV
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D, Op. 19
Alexi Kenney, violin
BARBER
Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17
European iconoclasts meet American masters. Composer Franz Berwald—an erstwhile orthopedic surgeon—stood apart from the early Romantic mainstream, cultivating a distinctly eccentric voice with his overture to Estrella di Soria. Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, an early work from the so-called “bad boy of Russian music,” conjures a dreamlike sound world, interweaving introspective lyricism with flashes of steely virtuosity. Completing the program are two pillars of 1940s Americana: the orchestral suite from Aaron Copland’s iconic ballet Appalachian Spring and the probing musical argument of Samuel Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra.
ALEXI KENNEY
TWO PIANOS
SLAVONIC DANCES + TWO PIANOS
November 21 and 22, 2026
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
SCHUBERT
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D. 485
Chen Yi
Concerto for Two Pianos (world premiere)
Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee, piano
DVOŘÁK
Slavonic Dances from Op. 46 & 72
Romantic classics share the program with a dynamic world premiere. Pianists
Ran Dank and Soyeon Kate Lee return to the Monterey Symphony for the debut of Chen Yi’s Concerto for Two Pianos the Monterey Symphony to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Yi, a daughter of China’s Cultural Revolution who emigrated to America, forged a singular voice with a brilliant synthesis of Chinese and Western traditions. In 1816, the teenage Franz Schubert dazzled Vienna with his Symphony No. 5, a work of youthful optimism, rhythmic vitality, and Classical grace. The program concludes with selections from Antonín Dvořák’s folk-inspired
RAN DANK SOYEON KATE LEE
TCHAIKOVSKY NO.5
TCHAIKOVSKY 5
February 20 and 21, 2027
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin commemorates friends whom the composer lost in World War I, with each movement taking the form of a French Baroque dance. Aaron Copland expresses the loneliness of modern urban life in his contemplative classic Quiet City, in which Monterey Symphony principals Dylan Girard (trumpet) and Ruth Stuart (English horn) step forward as soloists. Composed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Valerie Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout dramatizes the nightly phenomenon of people stepping outside to cheer, clap, and bang pots in support of frontline workers. The program closes with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s mighty Symphony No. 5, a work that grapples with fate and its acceptance.
by Manny Espinoza
Photos
BRAHMS: THE SYMPHONIES
March 20 and 21, 2027
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
SATURDAY PROGRAM
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 3
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 1
SUNDAY PROGRAM
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 2
BRAHMS
Symphony No. 4
For 150 years the symphonies of Johannes Brahms have remained essential cornerstones of the orchestral repertoire. The works chart a remarkable artistic journey: the long-gestated struggle of the First gives way to the confident serenity of the Second; the introspective complexity of the Third leads to the austere grandeur of the Fourth. This complete Brahms symphony cycle offers a rare opportunity to journey deep into the heart of the Romantic era. Maestro Jayce Ogren leads Symphonies No. 1 and No. 3 on Saturday evening followed by No. 2 and No. 4 on Sunday afternoon.
strauss bartók ven tho biss plays
BISS PLAYS BEETHOVEN
April 17 and 18, 2027
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 4, in G
Jonathan Biss, piano
Richard STRAUSS
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
BARTÓK
The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
Vivid narratives animate a program that is at once intimate, playful, and intense. In the Piano Concerto No. 4, Ludwig van Beethoven diverges from his hallmark heroism with a piece that transforms solitary introspection into ebullient joy. The Monterey Symphony is joined by pianist Jonathan Biss, an artist the Chicago Tribune calls “one of today’s foremost Beethoven exponents.” A mischievous trickster gets himself in hot water in Richard Strauss’s dazzling tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. The concert concludes with a disturbing tale of violence and obsession in the suite from Béla Bartók’s expressionist ballet The Miraculous Mandarin.
JONATHAN BISS
22/23 2027
MAHLER’S RESURRECTION
May 22 and 23, 2027
Sunset Center, Carmel
Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor
DVOŘÁK
Song to the Moon
Andriana Chuchman, soprano
VERDI Te Deum
VOLTI
MAHLER
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection”
VOLTI
Andriana Chuchman, soprano
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
Monterey Symphony’s season finale features Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”–an epic meditation on the deepest questions of life, death, and transcendence. The work calls for massive forces: a heavily-expanded orchestra, choir, vocal soloists, and organ. VOLTI joins the orchestra along with celebrated soloists Andriana Chuchman (soprano) and Michelle DeYoung (mezzosoprano). The program includes two additional Late Romantic treasures. In Antonín Dvořák’s “Song to the Moon” (from his opera Rusalka) the water nymph Rusalka appeals to the moon to convey her love to a distant human prince. Giuseppe Verdi’s sacred choral work Te Deum is among the composer’s final works and culminates in a profound expression of the struggle between faith and doubt.
MICHELLE DEYOUNG
ANDRIANA CHUCHMAN
2O26-2O27
SEASON
SUNSET CENTER, CARMEL
BALCONY ORCHESTRA
SINGLE TICKETS* On sale starting July 31, 2O26
TIER 1 / $90
TIER 2 / $70
TIER 3 / $50
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LOVE LETTER TO NEW YORK TICKETS*
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by Manny Espinoza
Photo