Imagine going to a restaurant and asking to sample several items on the menu before you order.
Just a few small bites to give you an idea if you’re gonna like the food.
That’s how we like to think of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s “Symphony Showcase,” a free sample of works the orchestra will perform in the upcoming season.
Not the full-out works; just snippets. Enough to give you the flavor of the music before you buy a ticket.
Tucson Symphony Orchestra Music Director José Luis Gomez, center, will lead the orchestra in a concert on Saturday that previews a number of works they will play in the 2026-27 season.
That’s the premise of the TSO’s free hour-long concert on Saturday, Sept. 19, that will criss-cross the orchestra’s concert series with movements from a number of works audiences will hear this season.
The orchestra and Music Director José Luis Gomez are hoping the preview will be an introduction to the orchestra for some in Saturday’s audience. For those familiar with the ensemble, it might be a chance to build excitement in the 2026-27 season, which kicks off Sept. 26 with guest violinist and artist-in-residence Amaryn Olmeda.
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Sure to be a big hit Saturday, the orchestra will play part of John Williams’ iconic “Star Wars” theme, which will be among the works on the April 24-25, 2027, “A Salute to John Williams: Star Wars & More at 50.” The concert is one of several in the orchestra’s new pops series Live@theRonstadt, under the baton of newly named Principal Pops Conductor Evan Roider.
They’ll play a movement from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” a symphony that takes its story from “One Thousand and One Nights” (aka ”The Arabian Nights”), which anchors the orchestra’s early December concert with guest violinist and crossover rising star Charles Yang.
Violinist Charles Yang joins the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in early December to perform Kris Bowers’ “For a Younger Self.”
The orchestra is collaborating with its neighboring Arizona Friends of Chamber Music in early November to bring Trio con Brio to Music Hall; they’ll give us a preview Saturday of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, which closes that concert.
We’ll also hear a bit of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 from next week’s opening concert; Moncayo’s “Huapango” from the Sept. 15 Mexican Independence Day concert; Hans Zimmer’s “Gladiator,” one of several Zimmer works on the Live@theRonstadt series Jan. 30-31, 2027; Casarrubios’s “Herencia” on the “Mozart & Brahms” concert next March; and Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé,” a special event next April.
“Symphony Sampler,” which the orchestra launched before the 2023-24 season, begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. For details, visit tucsonsymphony.org.
Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Bluesky @Starburch
Cathalena E. Burch
Reporter
