On Sunday, November 15th, we premiered our first virtual concert of the season on YouTube.

It's still available for viewing at your convenience!

Put December 6th on your calendar and plan to join us for our next concert premier.

2020/21 Season Update

We had big plans for presenting all 160 musicians of the orchestra and the chorale together on stage to kick off the concert season in a big way. But that was "plan A" and 2020 had different plans for us!

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From the Maestro

Dear Friends of the Rochester Symphony,

One of the frustrations we all share in the current pandemic is our inability to get together to “bring great music to life” in person. We miss each other and we miss you!

As you know, we had to cancel our final two concerts last season to keep us all safe. Thank you for your understanding and generosity about that sad decision.

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We had planned our full season for 2020-2021 before the pandemic hit. Of course, much of that season will have to be put on hold.

At this point, scientists have told us that instruments that make sound using human breath (i.e., winds, brass, and, especially, chorus) are less safe in live performance until the pandemic is brought under control. So we have asked our players to be creative in combining in small, safely distanced groups to bring us music we can enjoy right now.

Our plan is to offer three online performances of about an hour this fall to supplant our normal trio of concerts in October, November, and December. These will be professionally videoed and recorded at the Mayo Civic Center and offered to you and all our friends. We won’t be handing out printed programs, of course, but there will be concert information available for download and I’ll be there to guide us along the way. We are not charging for admission to these online events but are asking for a voluntary contribution to help defray the costs of producing the performances.

What will happen in the second half of our 20-21 season we aren’t yet sure. We currently have a series of live concerts planned for February, March, and April. In the more than likely event that live concerts for at least part of that period will not be possible, we plan to create additional online performances. In these we hope to have larger groups performing with a greater variety of instruments reflecting more the way an orchestra sounds. We, of course, will let you know of our plans as they develop.

When we have our first program ready for online performance in the coming weeks, we will let you know. We hope you will enjoy what our musicians have put together at this point. And I’ll be back in touch soon with specific details on all our autumn online offerings.

Please feel free to reply with your thoughts on our plans for this season. All of us at Rochester Symphony are eager to get back to what we do best—bringing great music to life in live concerts.

In the meantime, please stay safe. I look forward to seeing you online or in person soon!

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While you wait...

Check out this concert footage from our archives. Recorded live at our October 14, 2017 concert "Beethoven and Friends," enjoy some of the greatest music ever written. The 2nd movement, Allegretto, from Beethoven's 7th Symphony:

A special greeting from Rochester Symphony

to everyone at home:

See more musical greetings from Rochester Symphony musicians on our video blog!