Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra

The eminent American pianist Richard Goode will join the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 pm on Saturday, Oct 16 at Miller Auditorium in the first concert of the 2021-22 season. Music director Julian Kuerti and Goode joined Cara Lieurance to explore the program. 

The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra resumed in-person concerts  this summer by holding outdoor performances in Bronson Park and at the Gilmore Car Museum. The series will end at 8 pm Saturday, Aug 14 at the Gilmore Car Museum with a program filled with historic and contemporary meaning. Cara Lieurance welcomed music director Julian Kuerti, mezzo-soprano Melody Wilson, tenor Ben Gulley, and bass Scott Connor to the studio to talk about it. 

Nashon Holloway, with a combo of Chicago talent led by music director/arranger Rufus Ferguson and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra led by Daniel Brier will take the stage at 7:30 pm Saturday, July 17 in Bronson Park for an evening of Holloway's original music and selected cover songs by Joni Mitchell and Buffalo Springfield, among others. Holloway and Ferguson share the story of how this long-anticipated concert was conceived, written and rehearsed, in an interview with Cara Lieurance.

The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra's summer season at the Gilmore Car Museum begins at 8 pm Saturday with a concert featuring Branford Marsalis, one of the world's most famous saxophonists. (Note: front-section seating is sold out; lawn passes are still available). Music director Julian Kuerti says Marsalis will perform Escapades by John Williams. It's a perfect balance of jazz and classical influences, based on the film Catch Me If You Can. Marsalis will also play the Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone by Claude Debussy. The concert, which lands on Juneteenth, will also include a setting of John Rosamund Johnson's "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing." 

Conductor Daniel Brier says he and the Kalamazoo Symphony staff have learned many new skills and put in long hours to create a season of online concerts. In a conversation with Cara Lieurance, he says the final Digital Concert Hall performance makes him proud:  It's Prokofiev's Peter And The Wolf, featuring the orchestra, narrator David Little, and the Ballet Arts Ensemble of Kalamazoo. Little recorded the narration first, then the symphony recorded the music, then the dancers performed to the music. After careful editing for a seamless show, it will come together in a streamed concert at 7 pm Friday, May 28 through the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra website. The concert, which will be available to watch for 30 days, also features Brier conducting Ravel's Mother Goose Suite.