Classical Series

at a glance…

In response to our growing audience, our expanded seven-concert Classical Series brings stories of music to life, straight from the heart and soul of our accomplished orchestra and choir. Norman shaped our new season with you in mind! Be moved as your Bozeman Symphony performs blockbuster works from the greatest composers of all time - Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Copland. With acclaimed guest artists from throughout the world, expect nothing short of transformative experiences with these masterpieces. Norman is excited to highlight a United States composer at each concert together with composers from Europe, Asia, India, and Africa. Move with us on an exhilarating musical journey around the globe!

  • Opening Weekend: Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto

    September 21 & 22, 2024

    Celebrate the beginning of the new season with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 played by a rising star, Vijay Venkatesh. All sections of the orchestra will move you through this emotionally rich piece with sprawling chords and magnificent lines, lush orchestral textures, and moody, bittersweet melodies. After intermission, enjoy an exhilarating thrill ride in a nimble sports car. Adams’ joyfully exuberant piece, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, will showcase the orchestra running the gauntlet through a rhythmic tunnel. The concert concludes with Strauss’ most popular tone poem, Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, a musical depiction that chronicles the misadventures and pranks of a German peasant folk hero as the music follows his hijinks throughout the countryside.

  • The Rhythms of Beethoven, Rossini, and Akiho

    October 12 & 13, 2024

    What do Bugs Bunny and opera have in common? Come find out as you delight in memorable arias and a witty blend of humor and romance while listening to the overture from Rossini’s most popular opera, The Barber of Seville. In 2022, Akiho wowed Bozeman with his Steel Pan Concerto. The Bozeman Symphony is proud to be a co-commissioner for Akiho’s newest work, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, featuring Jeffrey Zeigler, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet. Be one of the first in the U.S. to witness this piece come to life. Maestro Huynh’s interpretation of Beethoven has moved audiences to have a spiritual experience. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, under our acclaimed maestro.

  • Korngold's Violin Concerto

    January 18 & 19, 2025

    Holmès is a relatively unknown French composer from the 19th century. Her piece, La Nuit et l’Amour, is a six-minute aural adventure that will leave you wondering why her music isn’t played more. Will Hagen, a regular soloist with major orchestras around the globe, returns to the Bozeman Symphony to delight us with Korngold’s brilliant Violin Concerto. Korngold, an Oscar-winning Hollywood film composer, borrowed several themes from his film scores for each movement of the Violin Concerto, making it one of the most beloved concertos of all time. The concert concludes with Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, a piece that dazzlingly features the orchestra. This performance will mar the first time that the Bozeman Symphony has performed this work.

  • Beethoven's Violin Concerto with Carrie Krause

    March 22 & 23, 2025

    This concert spotlights our beloved Concertmaster, Carrie Krause, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, which is considered to be his most lyrical work. Following will be Walker’s Lyric for Strings, an impactfully poignant piece that Walker dedicated in memory of his maternal grandmother, who escaped from slavery. Then be transported to Italy with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, The Italian, which evokes the sights and sounds from his 10-month trip to the country.

  • Pictures at an Exhibition

    April 26 & 27, 2025

    This concert unfolds slowly with Shekhar’s Lumina, a delicately beautiful piece that imagines a journey from darkness into light. Principal Percussionist Dana Dominguez, a Bozeman favorite, is featured with a marimba playing Grammy Award-winning composer Puts’ Marimba Concerto. This piece is a favorite of our music director and features the marimba in both melodic and ornamental roles alongside the orchestra. Finally, experience Ravel’s epic orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition, a musical tour of artworks by Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann that one of Ravel’s chroniclers once described as a “dazzling array of instrumental colour.”

  • A Spiritual Awakening: Verdi, Simon, Ives

    May 17 & 18, 2025

    This concert is an inspirational program highlighting the music of the United States and how we celebrate our spirituality and ourselves. Simon’s Four Black American Dances focuses on the centrality of dance as an expression of social connection, ritual, celebration, and worship in a Black Pentecostal church. Part of Verdi’s Te Deum, an ancient Latin hymn of praise to God, is sung regularly at Roman Catholic masses and special celebratory occasions. The concert peaks with Ives’ Symphony No. 2, which honors symphoni traditions while showcasing United States hymns in an unorthodox and witty musical language, blurring the boundaries of European classical structures.

  • Pablo Returns and Copland's Third Symphony

    June 7 & 8, 2025

    Celebrate the music of the United States and Spain with works by United States composer Copland and Spanish composer Rodrigo. Come explore the vibrant landscape of Spain as world-renowned guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas shares his unbridled passion for his homeland in Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un Gentilhombre. The journey concludes with Copland’s Third Symphony, offering an emotional journey from the uneasy tranquility of the opening movement to the heroic optimism of the finale.