Symphony San Jose Opens Its 25th Anniversary Season With America at 250

The California Theatre at 345 South First Street will open Symphony San Jose’s 25th anniversary season on Saturday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, October 4 at 2:30 p.m. The program, titled THE NEW WORLD: America at 250, ties the orchestra’s own milestone to the nation’s 250th year through three works that travel from the mythic West to a brand-new Bay Area premiere and on to Dvořák’s most famous symphony. The same season also marks the California Theatre’s 100th anniversary and 150 years since San Jose first heard an orchestral concert, so the weekend lands with extra weight for anyone who cares about Downtown San Jose’s cultural life.

Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid Suite still does what it has done since 1938: pull folk tunes, open-sky harmonies, and gunslinger swagger into a few tightly scored scenes. After that, pianist Joyce Yang will give the Bay Area its first hearing of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Rhapsody on America, a work Symphony San Jose co-commissioned. Leshnoff wrote the rhapsody as a lyrical, rhythmically restless meditation on the American spirit, and Yang has already introduced it elsewhere in the commissioning consortium. The evening then turns to Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” composed during his years in the United States and still the piece most people reach for when they want landscape, longing, and a big-hearted finish in the same hour.

Ken-David Masur will conduct both performances. The German-born American maestro, recently concluding a long Milwaukee Symphony tenure and a frequent guest with major U.S. orchestras, brings a clear beat and a taste for programs that mix familiar landmarks with living composers. Yang, a Van Cliburn silver medalist known for color and power at the keyboard, sits at the center of the Leshnoff. Together they give the anniversary opener a guest list that matches the occasion.

Saturday night adds an Opening Night Fanfare before the concert: a complimentary sip of champagne, live music, ballet dancers, and extra performances in the lobby as the house fills. Music Notes talks start one hour before each concert inside the auditorium. Adult ticket buyers can add guests age 17 and under at half price; single tickets run $35 to $125, fees included. The whole program lasts about one hour and 50 minutes with intermission.

Tickets and youth pricing details are at www.symphonysanjose.org or 408.286.2600.

Five Casts of Shrek Jr. Take Over Hoover Theater from September 25

Playful People Productions will run Shrek the Musical Jr. at Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Avenue, from September 25 through October 4. Two age bands share the stage across the ten days: performers five to twelve in one set of casts, twelve to seventeen in the other. Shannon Santandrea and Emily Pennington co-direct. The score is Jeanine Tesori’s, the book David Lindsay-Abaire’s, shortened for young companies but still built around an ogre who would rather stay in his swamp than rescue a princess for Lord Farquaad.

Five named casts split the calendar so families can pick a time that actually works. Castle Cast opens Friday the 25th at 7 p.m., then plays Saturday the 26th at 3 and Sunday the 27th at 11. Duloc Cast takes Saturday the 26th at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., plus Sunday the 27th at 3. The second weekend belongs to Parfait, Swamp, and Onion, with Friday the 2nd starting at 5 and 8 p.m. and Sunday the 4th stretching from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the ticket page before buying; each listing names its cast.

Tickets sit at $20 for youth twelve and under, $23 for students thirteen to seventeen, and $28 for adults. The City of San José Cultural Affairs grant and SVCreates money, in partnership with Santa Clara County, help keep those prices in family range. Playful People has worked out of Hoover since the company formed in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) in 2017. The same shop still runs adult classes and multi-generational shows when a script allows relatives on the same bill.

Tickets: https://www.playfulpeople.org/tickets

Company info: https://www.playfulpeople.org or (408) 878-5362

San José Chamber Orchestra Opens Its 36th Season by Handing Off the Baton

Barbara Day Turner will leave the podium after 35 seasons as founder of the San José Chamber Orchestra. Concertmaster Liana Bérubé takes the title of Music Director for season 36. The handoff concert is Sunday, September 27, at 7 p.m. at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1205 Pine Avenue in Willow Glen. The program is called “Brava, Maestra!” Street parking around the church is free and usually adequate on a Sunday night.

Turner’s ledger is the reason the evening exists. More than 260 commissions or premieres. Seven CDs of American music. Five ASCAP/League of American Orchestras Adventurous Programming Awards. The ensemble is a professional string group of twenty-plus players that still treats new work as normal rather than a special occasion. City Cultural Affairs money and SVCreates funds, with the County and the California Arts Council, help keep that habit alive.

Bérubé will conduct and play. The bill is Jeremy Cohen’s “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” Marc-Olivier Dupin’s Variations on La Traviata with Bérubé as violin soloist, Steven Mark Kohn’s Hymn for string orchestra, Michael Touchi’s Tango Barroco with David Cortez on soprano saxophone and Adrienne Malley on English horn, and Max Wolpert’s “Lid un Tantsn,” String Quartet No. 3. None of it is a greatest-hits night. It is the kind of program Turner spent three decades training this room to play.

Tickets run $25 for students, $65 or $75 for seniors 62 and up, and $75 or $85 for adults, with no added fees. Buy online, call 408.295.4416, email the box office, or pay at the door. The rest of the season stays at St. Francis: November 15, New Year’s afternoon with Jon Nakamatsu, then dates in March, April, and May.

Tickets: https://sjco.org/

Phone: 408.295.4416

Playful People Puts the Year’s Fundraising Night in a 1915 Craftsman Clubhouse

Tickets opened today for “The Magic Is Us,” the annual gala that keeps Playful People Productions running classes, camps, and family casts at San Jose’s Historic Hoover Theater. The party lands Saturday, September 19, from 5 to 10 p.m. at Saratoga Foothill Club, 20399 Park Place, a 1915 American Craftsman hall on the National Register. Guests must be 21 or older. Cocktail clothes are welcome and not mandatory. Individual seats are $200, of which $50 is tax-deductible.

Playful People started in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) in 2017. Sixteen seasons later the company still takes beginners, stages kids and adults in the same seasons, and lets relatives share a bill when the script allows. The incoming slate already includes Shrek the Musical Jr. in late September and a homeschool Winnie the Pooh at the end of October. Tuition and ticket sales never cover the whole machine. The gala is the night that fills the gap for students across income levels.

The clubhouse evening will run heavy appetizers, desserts, a cash bar, short performances, and dancing. Auction lots include a home tea party with founders Barb Galiotto and Katie D’Arcey, a floral class for ten with Gal in the Glen and alum Jill Maggi, and a murder-mystery dinner for up to ten hosted by staff. Five VIP tables at $3,000 each come with two bottles of wine and a show-theme pick; a few were still listed when tickets went public. Smaller sponsorships start at $100. Cash matches run from $500 to $5,000. Anyone skipping the party can still buy into the online auction or sponsor a staff member.

A separate travel raffle is selling 150 tickets only in person at Hoover Theater: $100 each or six for $500, drawn at the gala, winner’s choice of a five-night trip to Hawaii, Huntington Beach, or the Greek Isles, cap of $4,550. Winners need not attend. Phone orders for the gala itself go through (408) 878-5362.

Gala tickets: https://bit.ly/4bYwUMc

Playful People season and Hoover box office: https://www.playfulpeople.org/

Symphony San Jose Prepares Landmark 25th Anniversary Season Filled with Historic Celebrations

Symphony San Jose will commemorate its 25th anniversary while simultaneously honoring the 100th anniversary of the California Theatre and the 150th anniversary of the first orchestral ensemble ever presented in San Jose. These converging milestones will infuse the entire 2026/2027 season with special significance.

Under Executive and Artistic Director Robert Massey entering his fifth year at the helm, the orchestra will deliver 43 performances stretching from October 2026 through June 2027. The lineup will maintain the group's signature balance of enduring classical works, bold new compositions, popular selections, and dynamic collaborations. Standout innovations will include a fresh December classics offering, an additional fully staged ballet partnership with New Ballet, the first-ever performance utilizing the California Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer organ, and the brand-new My Very First Symphony aimed at introducing families to the orchestra.

Enthusiasts can anticipate programs spanning Dvořák’s triumphant “From the New World,” Mussorgsky’s vivid “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and a spectacular live-to-picture rendition of Star Wars: A New Hope. You will savor seasonal highlights featuring The San Jose Nutcracker along with a joyful Holiday Spectacular, leading toward a stirring close with Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony. Meanwhile, education outreach will expand through additional Students at the Symphony performances, ensuring the next generation connects with live music.

Subscriptions priced from $90 have become available now via www.symphonysanjose.org or by calling (408) 286-2600. Single tickets from $35 go on sale in mid-August.