2025-2026 Season

3:00 Sunday
Classical Concerts

The Classics

Sunday, October 19 (in Sedona)
& Tuesday, October 21, 2025 
(in Prescott)

Jon Nakamatsu, piano 
William White, conductor 

HANDEL Acis and Galatea Overture (arr. Mozart) 
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 
HAYDN Symphony No. 99 

Our season kicks off Jon Nakamatsu, truly a “pianists’ pianist,” performing Beethoven’s  first concerto, a work that the composer created for himself to make a splash when he left his sleepy hometown of Bonn and took up residence in big city Vienna. Beethoven’s  favorite composer was Handel, so we’ll open the season with one of the Baroque master’s indelible overtures (brought up-to-date by none other than Mozart), but it’s Papa Haydn  — Beethoven’s teacher — who gets the final say with his mighty 99th symphony.

Mozart & Marimba

Sunday, November 23, 2025

Abby Fischer, marimba 
William White, conductor 

GALBRAITH Midnight Stirring 
PUTS Marimba Concerto 
PORPORA Carlo il Calvo Overture 
MOZART Symphony No. 36 (“Linz”) 

The marimba is a beautiful, fascinating instrument that doesn’t always get the spotlight,  but in this concerto by the contemporary American composer Kevin Puts, we get to hear it in all its glory. The concert opens with Nancy Galbraith’s Midnight Stirring, another work that shows just how refreshing contemporary composition can be when a composer  embraces a straightforward American sound.  The second half of this concert takes us back to the classics, with music by the little known Italian composer Nicola Porpora (Haydn’s teacher) and the great Wolfgang  Amadeus Mozart writing at the height of his powers.

The Romantics

Sunday, February 1, 2026

Sarah Schreffler, violin 
Gabriel Martins, cello 
William White, conductor 

SCHUMANN, Clara Three Romances (arr. White) 
SCHUMANN, Robert Cello Concerto 
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 3 (“Scottish”) 

The first half of this program presents works by the husband-and-wife team of Robert  and Clara Schumann presented side-by-side. Clara’s “Three Romances” for violin have  been re-arranged for orchestral accompaniment by yours truly, and will be performed by  the Sedona Symphony’s own concertmistress, Sarah Schreffler. For Robert Schumann’s  cello concerto, we’ve got the great young cellist Gabriel Martins joining us — who, as  luck would have it, has a strong Sedona connection! 

Felix Mendelssohn was great friend of the Schumanns, and quite the Romantic himself.  His journey to the far reaches of Scotland inspired this great travelogue symphony,  infused with the sound of the highlands.

Discovery

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Jacqueline Rodenbeck, violin 
William White, conductor 

GLUCK Dance of the Furies 
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto 
CPE BACH Symphony in D W 183/1 
JS BACH Orchestral Suite No. 3 

Our soloist for this concert is Jacqueline Rodenbeck, a Tucson native and winner of the  most recent Sphinx Concerto Competition. Jackie will perform one of the all-time favorite  solo works in the repertoire, Felix Mendelssohn’s violin concerto. This concerto gets off  to a fiery start, so appropriately enough, we’ll lead into it with Gluck’s “Dance of the  Furies” from his opera Orpheus and Eurydice. 

We have Felix Mendelssohn to thank not only for his great compositions, but also for his  work championing the music of J. S. Bach, whose work was all but forgotten by the  beginning of the 19th century. Certain musicians kept the flame alive though, including  Bach’s most ingenious son, Carl Philip Emmanuel.

Saturday, April 18 
7:00 pm

The Verde Valley Voices 
Sedona Libero, vocalist 
Desmond Siu, conductor 

SMITH / KEY The Star-Spangled Banner 
STILL Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American” mvmt. 3
RODGERS Oklahoma Medley 
GERSHWIN Summertime 
COPLAND “Old American Songs” 
The Boatman’s Dance 
Simple Gifts 
I Bought Me a Cat 
JOPLIN The Entertainer 
BERNSTEIN West Side Story Overture 
GROFE Grand Canyon Suite 

Encores: 
WARD / BATES “America the Beautiful” 
SOUSA The Stars and Stripes Forever March 

An all-American spectacular caps off the season as we celebrate our country’s 250th birthday. The best of our nation’s music is represented in this program, from jazz to  ragtime to Broadway, crowned by Ferde Grofé’s grand symphonic masterwork, the Grand Canyon Suite, celebrating the amazing wonder of the natural world that’s right in  our own backyard. 

For this concert, the Symphony will be joined by singers from the Verde Valley Voices  and Arizona native Sedona Libero in songs of Gershwin and Copland, plus a rousing  singalong encore of “America the Beautiful.” Nate Meyers of the Sedona Historical  Society will be on hand to talk about Northern Arizona’s place in our nation’s history.

POPS Concert:
America 250 Celebration

Ticket and Venue Information

The first four classical concerts in Sedona will be held on Sundays at 3:00 pm, while the final pops concert in Sedona will be held on Saturday at 7:00 pm. All Sedona performances will be presented at the Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road in Sedona.

The October 21 concert in Prescott will be presented at The Jim & Linda Lee Performing Arts Center, 1100 E Sheldon Street, presented in partnership with Yavapai Symphony Association. This offers a promising new opportunity for Sedona Symphony to reach new audiences in a nearby market.

Season Tickets for 2025-2026 will be available for purchase beginning on September 1, 2025, with individual concert ticket sales beginning on September 15, 2025.

Filtering by: “Friendraisers”