Curtis Symphony Orchestra

Curtis students join together each year to create one of the world’s great orchestras. Led by internationally renowned conductors and featuring sparkling repertoire, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra is an immersive experience with unique resonance. The ensemble presents three subscription performances each year in Verizon Hall on the Kimmel Cultural Campus. 

Spectacular Strauss

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and rising stars of the Curtis Opera Theatre kick off the 2023–24 season with a tribute to Strauss. A celebration of the German Romantic composer’s life and legacy, the program features highlights from some of his most popular operas, and it scales the spectacular heights of his final tone poem, An Alpine Symphony.

Berlioz, Ortiz, and Barber

Acclaimed conductor Michael Stern leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in an evening of extraordinary emotional contrasts. The afternoon concludes with one of the repertoire’s most popular and influential symphonies, Hector Berlioz’s astonishing Symphonie fantastique.

Ra, Mackey, and Tchaikovsky

Renowned conductor Robert Spano leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in a remarkable program featuring two exhilarating world premieres and a late-Romantic era classic. The afternoon opens with a newly commissioned work by James Ra and features the world premiere of Steven Mackey‘s concerto for solo electric guitar and orchestra.

Special Thanks

Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment Fund. Guest conductor appearances for each Curtis Symphony Orchestra performance are made possible by the Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser Chair in Conducting Studies.

Orchestral concerts are supported by the Jack Wolgin Curtis Orchestral Concerts Endowment Fund.