PORT ANGELES — From “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” to the opera “Tosca,” the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra’s new season is positively “swoon-worthy,” orchestra member Jory Noble said.
Noble, who as a girl fell madly in love with the violin, has been the symphony’s concertmaster for five years. Looking ahead to the 2025-2026 season, Noble is eager to perform with soloists from near and far, interpreting music of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Rossini and Puccini, plus a world-premiere work by former Port Angeles resident Noah Michael Smith.
Season passes are available at https://portangelessymphony.org, with discounts of up to 35 percent from single-ticket prices.
Subscriptions range from the nine-concert “music lover’s series” to the set of three chamber concerts and six full symphony orchestra performances. Morning dress rehearsals will be open to the public, and those ages 18 and younger will be admitted free with a ticketed patron to any concert.
The season will start with a reimagined Family Concert, featuring German violinist Franziska Pietsch, who dazzled the audience in November 2024 on her first visit to Port Angeles.
Pietsch will perform Korngold’s Violin Concerto in the Sept. 27 concert, which also will feature music from “Star Trek” and “Beauty and the Beast,” Leonard Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow,” Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown” and Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” with KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman narrating.
Also in the Family Concert, the Port Angeles and Sequim high schools’ combined choirs will join the orchestra for a few songs. That means a total of 125 people will be on stage.
“The whole season brings a lot of beautiful and exciting music,” said Jonathan Pasternack, the symphony’s artistic director and conductor.
The orchestra, which gathers musicians from across the Olympic Peninsula and western Washington, enchants the audience with its passion and skill, Pasternack added.
“You don’t need to know anything about classical music to enjoy these concerts,” he said.
Bergman, for her part, looks forward to experiencing “Young Person’s Guide” along with her listeners. Britten’s piece is “the coming to life of each of the sections of the orchestra — right before our very eyes and ears,” she said.
“We’ll be getting up close and personal as they reveal their distinctive personalities,” which are sometimes funny and sometimes surprising.
Bergman will be one of more than a dozen guest artists. Cellist Gregorio Nieto, originally from Venezuela; pianist Alexander Tutunov, who was born in the former Soviet Union; Pietsch, who grew up in East Germany, are among the soloists.
Tenor Errin Duane Brooks, known for his performances at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera, will be part of the “Tosca” cast on May 2. Violinist James Garlick and bassoonist Hunter Gordon, whose roots are on the North Olympic Peninsula, will return home to perform.
Soprano Kristin Vogel, guitarist Colin Davin and baritone David Meyer are among the soloists who will come back to Port Angeles.
“I can’t wait to get started,” Pasternack said.
“My goal always is that every concert we perform will have something for everyone.”
The 2025-2026 season
Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra concerts are at the Port Angeles High School Performing Arts Center, 304 E. Park Ave. Chamber programs are on Friday evenings at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles and Saturday evenings at Trinity United Methodist Church in Sequim.
Tickets and information are at portangelessymphony.org, and music lovers can request a season brochure by contacting the symphony at 360-457-5579 or emailing pasymphony@olypen.com.
The following are concert dates with a few highlights from each program:
• Sept. 27: Family Concert with Korngold’s Violin Concerto featuring soloist Franziska Pietsch; “Star Trek through the Years;” Moncayo’s “Huapango;” “America the Beautiful” with the Sequim-Port Angeles combined high school choirs; Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” with narrator Lisa Bergman.
• Oct. 10-11: Chamber program: Guitarist Colin Davin in recital.
• Nov. 1: Guest artist Alexander Tutunov will play the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.
• Dec. 13: Cellist Gregorio Nieto will play Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto in A minor, plus festive and holiday music and an audience sing-along.
• Jan. 16-17: Chamber program: Tyler Benedict and the orchestra will play Plau’s Concerto for Tuba and Strings.
• Feb. 21: Local composer Noah Michael Smith and the orchestra will premiere a new work; James Garlick and the symphony will perform Barber’s Concerto for Violin.
• March 21: Rossini’s Concerto for Bassoon will feature guest artist Hunter Gordon.
• May 2: A concert performance of Puccini’s “Tosca,” with soprano Kristin Vogel, tenor Errin Duane Brooks, baritone David Meyer, plus other guest artists and full chorus.
• May 15-16: Chamber program: Celebrated violinist Miranda Liu and the chamber orchestra will play Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin No. 2 in D minor.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
KING-FM announcer Lisa Bergman will narrate “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” in the Port Angeles Symphony’s Sept. 27 Family Concert, its first performance of the a season.
