A Season in Motion — and So Much Ahead
26/27 Season Announcement
SoundBridge is heading to Virginia Beach!
Delta In Our Schools
VSO Playlist: Maestro’s Picks
What About The Music?: Finding Peace at Potsdam
Support the VSO
Symphonic Snapshots
A Season in Motion — and So Much Ahead
Dear Friends,
As we move into the final stretch of the season, there’s an unmistakable energy building across Southeastern Virginia. From inspiring performances to meaningful moments shared with our community, this time of year is a powerful reminder of what music makes possible when we experience it together.
At the same time, we are looking ahead with great excitement as we begin sharing plans for our 2026–2027 season.
If you are a current subscriber for the 2025–2026 season, your renewal package should be arriving in your mailbox soon, if it hasn’t already. You can also preview the upcoming season now at virginiasymphony.org/subscribe.
Beginning May 11, we invite new subscribers to explore and purchase subscription packages for the new season. Tickets to individual concerts will be available for purchase starting August 3.
Looking just ahead, we invite you to join us for Give Local 757 on May 5, Hampton Roads’ largest day of giving and a meaningful opportunity to support the music and musicians who serve our entire community.
Later this month, we look forward to closing the season with Potsdam, led by Eric Jacobsen and featuring the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus, an immersive program that brings a pivotal moment in history to life through powerful storytelling and the music of Copland, Bernstein, and more as we finish the season strong. These performances are made possible through the generous support of the Susan Goode Performance Fund and are co-presented with the Virginia Arts Festival.
Thank you for being such an important part of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra family. Your support, your presence, and your belief in this work make everything we do possible.
With sincere appreciation,
Hailey Schumacher
Annual Fund Manager
Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Join us for an unforgettable season as we open in September with Mahler’s Titan Symphony, the Virginia Premiere and historic first recording of Philip Glass’ new Lincoln Symphony, and the monumental masterpiece, Verdi’s Requiem, featuring the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
Be fully immersed in the world of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the big screen at Amadeus Live, reignite your soul at a one-night-only concert with Tamela Mann and David Mann, and celebrate the golden age of musical theatre with the music of Rodgers & Hammerstein.
Explore new venues and experience music up close with Brahms’ Horn Trio featuring Jeffrey Kahane, Mozart’s Gran Partita a 13-instrument piece featuring the VSO woodwinds, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet featuring pianist Adam Golka and so much more.
SoundBridge is heading to Virginia Beach!
On June 4, the popular series continues at Smartmouth Brewing’s Pilot House in Virginia Beach with A Very Sunny Musical Market. Join us for an evening of live VSO performances, local artisan vendors, and great craft beverages in a relaxed, come-as-you-are atmosphere.
Browse, listen, and connect with your community in a fresh setting that makes orchestral music feel right at home.
Get tickets before they’re gone at the link to the right!
Event Details:
📍 Smartmouth Brewing Pilot House – Virginia Beach
📅 June 4, 2026
⏰ 6:00–8:30 PM
Guests are welcome to arrive at their leisure, stay throughout the evening, and explore all the event has to offer.
Where Music Meets Possibility
On April 24, VSO musicians George Corbett (oboe) and Carter Melin (cello) visited Sherwood Forest Elementary in Norfolk and for many students, it was their first time hearing a live instrument up close.
More than a performance, it was an invitation. The musicians demonstrated their instruments, shared what life as a musician looks like, and sparked real curiosity. Third graders responded with thoughtful questions about sound, technique, and what it takes to make music.
Third graders responded with thoughtful, insightful questions about sound, technique, and what it takes to bring music to life, you could feel it happening in real time: curiosity turning into connection, and connection into inspiration.
Following the visit, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. provided literacy materials designed to reinforce what students experienced, bridging music with reading comprehension and learning. It’s a powerful combination: students don’t just hear the music, they engage with it, reflect on it, and carry it forward.
Maestro’s Picks
Inside the VSO’s Spotify Playlist:
What Music Director Eric Jacobsen listening
to this May!
Bernstein: Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide): I can’t wait to have the VSO Chorus back with us at the end of the month! This song is one that always brings tears to my eyes with its beautiful and nostalgic feel. “We’ll do the best we know” feels so uniquely human and powerful.
What about the music?
An inside look with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra
Finding Peace at Potsdam
Friday, May 29, 2026 | 7:30PM | Chrysler Hall – Get Tickets
Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 7:30PM | Diamonstein Concert Hall – Ferguson Center – Get Tickets
There are moments in history when words fail and music steps forward to say what humanity cannot.
Finding Peace at Potsdam is built on one of those moments.
In the summer of 1945, as the world stood on the fragile edge of a new future, three leaders—Truman, Churchill, and Stalin—sat across from one another in Potsdam, Germany, negotiating not just the end of war, but the shape of peace itself. Tension was thick. Trust was thin. And yet, in the quiet spaces between negotiations, something remarkable happened: they turned to music.
Not strategy. Not politics. Music.
And for a fleeting, powerful moment… humanity found common ground.
Music That Shapes History
This program is not simply a concert. It is an experience, one that places you inside that charged, uncertain room and asks you to listen differently.
Under the direction of Eric Jacobsen, the full Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus bring this story to life through a seamless fusion of performance, narration, and visual storytelling. The result is immersive, immediate, and deeply human, music not as background, but as a force shaping history.
And the music itself? It does not whisper. It speaks boldly.
The Sound of Hope, Urgency, and Human Connection
In The Promise of Living by Aaron Copland, you will hear more than a melody, you will hear a call. Open harmonies stretch wide, evoking the American landscape, while the chorus rises in unison with a sense of shared responsibility and hope. It is music that breathes, expansive, grounded, and resolute.
Make Our Garden Grow from Candide by Leonard Bernstein offers a different kind of power, one that builds quietly and then blooms. What begins simply grows into something deeply human and collective, as voices join together in a final affirmation of purpose, resilience, and the choice to create meaning through action. It is less about searching and more about finding purpose through shared effort.
Threaded throughout are the very sounds that once filled the halls of the Potsdam Conference, music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Frédéric Chopin, Fritz Kreisler, and others. These are intimate works, lyrical, expressive, and deeply personal. Listen for the warmth of a violin line, the quiet ache in a piano phrase, the way a single melody can feel like a conversation across cultures. This is music that crossed borders when diplomacy could not, music that softened edges, opened hearts, and, if only briefly, made unity possible.
Listen Closely
As you listen, you are invited to notice the contrasts:
the grandeur of chorus against the intimacy of a solo line,
the tension between uncertainty and hope,
the moments where sound gives way to silence and meaning lingers.
Because here is the truth this program insists we confront:
Even in the most divided moments of history, music has the power to connect us.
Finding Peace at Potsdam is part of our America 250 observance, and a powerful reminder that the past is not distant, it is alive in every note we play, and in every moment we choose to truly listen.
We’re Excited to See you at a Concert Soon!
♪ = This icon indicates VSO-presented subscription concerts. Concerts without this icon may be special events, presented by another organization, or completely free. Concerts without this icon are not eligible for subscriber exchanges. For more information on a particular performance, click its MORE INFO button.
Mozart’s Gran Partita
Mozart’s Gran Partita
COFFEE CONCERT: John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Iconic Film Scores
John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Iconic Film Scores
PB&J Family Series: John Williams’ Sounds of Adventure
John Williams & Steven Spielberg: Iconic Film Scores
Gospel Night with Tamela & David Mann
A Very Merry Musical Market
A Very Merry Musical Market
Benefit Concert for The Muse Writers Center
Classical Christmas
PB&J Family Series: Jingle Bell Jam
Holiday POPS!
Classical Christmas
Classical Christmas
You’re Invited: Celebrating The Next Generation of Musicians
There is something extraordinary about watching a young musician step into their potential and on May 12, you are invited to experience that moment firsthand at the final recital of the Mary Goode Brooke Music for Young People Legacy Program.
This program carries forward a powerful legacy rooted right here in Norfolk. As a young pianist, Mary Goode Brooke performed with the Norfolk Symphony, now the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, at just 15 years old. Her lifelong dedication to music and education continues to inspire this initiative today, supporting and celebrating the musical growth of students across Norfolk Public Schools.
Throughout the semester, student musicians from Booker T. Washington, Granby, Lake Taylor, Maury, and Norview High Schools have come together in string quartets, each ensemble coached by professional Virginia Symphony Orchestra musicians. In this setting, there is no conductor. Every student must listen deeply, communicate clearly, and work collaboratively to shape the music as one. It is a process that builds not only musical skill, but confidence, leadership, and a shared sense of purpose.
The final recital will take place on May 12, 2026 at Booker T. Washington High School, with the performance beginning at 7:00 PM, followed by a reception. This event is free and open to the public, and we warmly invite you to attend.
As you listen, you’ll hear more than music; you’ll hear the result of dedication, mentorship, and opportunity coming together in real time. It is a celebration not only of what these students have accomplished, but of what is possible when young musicians are given the support to grow, collaborate, and be heard.
From An Emerging Artist, A Timeless Masterwork
On Sunday, April 12, audiences in Smithfield experienced something truly special.
Alyssa Estrella, a current Virginia Symphony Orchestra Fellow, delivered a poised and expressive performance of a special arrangement of the first movement from Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 as part of the Sundays at Four concert series at Christ Episcopal Church.
Presented in collaboration with Soundscapes, the performance brought together artistry, mentorship, and community in a setting that invited listeners to experience this beloved work in a fresh and intimate way. Alyssa’s performance captured both the elegance and emotional depth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s writing, balancing technical precision with warmth and clarity.
This moment on stage was made possible through a strong network of collaboration and guidance. Special thanks go to Rey Ramirez, Co-founder and Program Director of Soundscapes, for creating the opportunity, and to Mateo Ayala Roman, Teaching Artist and Performance Ensemble Coach, for his thoughtful musical leadership. Their work, alongside the dedication of the ensemble musicians, helped shape a performance that resonated deeply with all in attendance.
It is through opportunities like these that emerging artists continue to grow, refine their craft, and share their voices; bringing music to life in ways that feel both immediate and enduring.
One Day. One Community. One Moment to Give.
Give Local 757 culminates on May 5, but you don’t have to wait. Early giving is open now through May 4 at 11:59 PM, and every gift made during this window is not just convenient – it’s critical. These early gifts help position the Symphony to maximize visibility, unlock challenges, and build the momentum needed for a powerful day of impact.
This is your chance to act now and be part of something bigger from the very start.
Your support helps:
- Bring live music into classrooms across our region
- Support the musicians who bring each performance to life
- Expand access to concerts and community programs
- Reach tens of thousands of students and families each year
Symphonic Snapshots
Enjoy a glimpse into recent events filled with music, magic, and memorable moments. Even if you couldn’t join us in person, we hope these photos capture the energy and spirit of the VSO community.
Fire and Rain: Folk Anthems of the 70s
April 10-11, 2026
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
March 27-28, 2026