This is, in many ways, the Year of Women at the Phoenix Symphony. The 2024-2025 season opens with two women guest conducting. Lina Gonzalez-Granados, a Colombian-American conductor, leads the symphony in Gustav Holst’s most celebrated work, “The Planets,” for the first performance of the Classics Series the weekend of Oct. 4-6.
The Pops Series opens the weekend of Oct. 11-13 with Mélisse Brunet, who is both a pops and classical conductor, leading the orchestra in “Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz and Friends,” a program packed with hits from classic musicals like “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked” with Schwartz hosting and playing piano.
Several highlights of the Pops Series will celebrate the legacy of women whose music has done much to shape the culture of their generations, from “The Trailblazing Music of Joni Mitchell, Carole King & Carly Simon” (Jan. 24-26) to Tina Turner (Feb. 7-9), Selena (April 5-6) and Arizona icon Linda Ronstadt with Ann Hampton Callaway joining the Symphony on vocals (May 9-11).
Beethoven X Beyoncé picks up where the Resurrection Mixtape left off
The final performance of the season (May 30-31) is Beethoven X Beyoncé, in which conductor Steve Hackman is set to interweave selections from across the R&B star’s celebrated catalog with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
It’s a sequel of sorts to “The Resurrection Mixtape,” in which Hackman fused highlights of Mahler’s Second Symphony with the rapping of two hip-hop icons who were murdered in the ‘90s — the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur.
Billed as “a transformative exploration of life and death, legacy, struggle and triumph,” “The Resurrection Mixtape” was a success.
Christopher Powell, the symphony’s vice president of operations and artistic planning, says it was “one of the most spectacularly exciting moments in Symphony Hall with the orchestra mashed up with this other style.”
It was both “brilliantly done” and “incredibly operatic in its scope,” Powell adds, the way the stories of those rappers’ troubled lives and early deaths were seamlessly reflected in the essence of the Resurrection Symphony.
For Beethoven X Beyoncé, they’re taking segments of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and weaving them together with Beyoncé songs that Powell says “match the feeling and style of the symphony that’s being played along with them.”
Phoenix Symphony 2024-25: ‘A broad range of rich musical experiences’
There are many factors to consider when putting a symphony season together, from the availability of guest conductors and guest artists to the overall scope of the season. It can mean planning several seasons in advance.
“We also think about our goal to enrich our community through a broad range of rich musical experiences,” Symphony President and CEO Peter Kjome says.
“That means we’re thinking about classical concerts, pops concerts, films, holiday concerts, family concerts, a broad range of programming throughout the year to help ensure that we’re serving our diverse community through a wide range of music.”
They also have to think about what pieces have been done in recent years.
“We’re going to be doing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony this year, something that we tend to do every few years,” Kjome says. “There are pieces like that, that you’ll see again and again, and others that might be more rare. It’s being thoughtful about those choices.”
Among the concerts Powell says he’s really looking forward to is celebrating the centennial of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (Nov. 22-24)
“Every single piece on that program is celebrating its centenary,” Powell says. “‘Pacific 231’ and Sibelius’ final symphony were also 1924. And then finally, ‘Pines of Rome.’ There’s something that was in the water in 1924.”
They’ve even got a prelude in the lobby to reflect the tenor of those times.
“The Phoenix Art Deco Society will be there with a band in the lobby rack doing ragtime and all this flapper dress, basically having a big flapper party in the lobby before a classics concert,” Powell says, “which should be really fun.”
Serving different audiences with different types of programming
The symphony’s goal is to offer programming for a variety of audiences.
“Many years ago, a number of orchestra managers would think about the Pops as sort of an entry point that might attract someone to come to the symphony, and then eventually, perhaps they would instead prefer to go to the classical performances,” Kjome says. “That thinking has evolved.”
It’s important, he says, to provide “compelling programming regardless of what somebody’s musical tastes are.”
In the case of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in Concert (May 23-25), where they’re screening the movie in full with the symphony bringing John Williams’ brilliant score to life, musical tastes may not come into play at all.
At events like that, Kjome says, “We often have people coming to the symphony for the very first time, and people of all ages. What a wonderful way to welcome someone to hear our great orchestra for the first time! Yes, of course, we hope they will come back. And John Williams’ incredible score is rooted so much in the classical tradition, someone who loves that music might very well think, ‘Yes, I’d like to come and hear the orchestra.’”
They’re reaching out to a whole other audience on March 8 with The Music of Pink Floyd – A Rock Symphony.
“Last year, we did the music of Queen,” Powell says. “There’s an entire large audience who loves classic rock and having that with the orchestra becomes a real spectacle and something very different for our audience to enjoy.”
Symphony musicians ’embrace this kind of innovative programming’
The members of the symphony enjoy the challenge.
“One of the things I really appreciate about our musicians is how versatile they are and how they embrace and welcome this kind of innovative programming and trying new things,” Kjome says. “Thinking about all that’s going on in Arizona, there’s no reason why our community can’t be home to one of the most innovative, dynamic orchestras in the country.”
The symphony features musicians of all ages, which leads to many different frames of reference.
“Some people know the music of Tupac and Biggie or Beyonce, some do not,” Powell says.
“However, there have been comments from some of the older members of the orchestra about how incredibly exciting that Resurrection concert was to play. They had no idea what to expect, and they probably went into it rather skeptical, but they came out of those performances elated because there was a literal roar of the crowd.”
Symphony crowds tend not to roar so much when they’re enjoying something.
“There’s a tradition of involvement in rap music that’s responsive from the audience,” Powell says. “And it happened naturally, organically. That was so different for a symphony orchestra to experience that it was unforgettable.”
Powell recalls a conversation with the last person to leave the hall at a performance of The Resurrection Mixtape, a middle-aged Black woman.
“She was so energized and excited by the performance,” he says.
“She took my hand, and she said, ‘You’ve opened the door for us. Please don’t close it.’ I’ll never forget that. That was a real emotional reaction to a type of program that we hadn’t tried before. That’s inspirational. If one person is willing to share that, I’m sure others felt it.”
Longtime Phoenix Symphony subscribers may not be as likely to attend The Resurrection Mixtape or The Music of Pink Floyd. Still, Kjome says most subscribers do appreciate the effort they put into bringing in new audiences.
“In other cases,” Kjome says, “there have been people who’ve attended who said ‘I wanted to see what this was all about’ and came away saying, ‘This really surprised me; I’m gonna come back.’ So there’s a real mix.”
‘We have remarkable opportunities here in Phoenix’
Kjome joined the Phoenix Symphony in early 2023.
“We have remarkable opportunities here in Phoenix,” he says.
“We are working together in some really inspiring ways with our Symphony Foundation board, musicians and staff, with the support of our community, to chart the course toward a bright future. It’s our goal to provide extraordinary musical experiences that enrich members of our community from all ages and backgrounds.”
They’re always thinking of new ways to reach more people.
To that end, they’re launching a family series this season at Madison Center for the Arts and a new Chamber Orchestra series at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. They’re doing performances at Mesa Arts Center in addition to concerts at their home base in Symphony Hall. They’re also working with students through their education programs and expanding their community engagement efforts.
“Those programs, I believe, are among the finest in the country and an important part of how we fulfill our mission on and off the stage,” Kjome says. Recently opened businesses in downtown Phoenix promise food, fun and beautyI tried 8 dishes at Corso Italia in Scottsdale. These are the 3 I’d go back forToday is National Coffee Day. Here’s where to score a free cup of coffee in ArizonaSouthern Arizona wineries and vineyards thrive in Sonoita, Willcox, Pearce & Patagonia
The Phoenix Symphony is looking for a music director
This season, the symphony is conducting a search for a music director for the first time in more than a decade.
“This is one of the most important decisions that an orchestra can make, and the process is done in a very public way in that we invite remarkable guest conductors to come and lead performances by the Phoenix Symphony,” Kjome says.
“We’ll have 10 guest conductors on our classical series this year, each of them coming to town, and we are so excited to get to know them and for them to get to know the Phoenix Symphony and Phoenix and Arizona.”It’s an exciting process, he says.
“And at the conclusion of that process, we will be informed by these performances that we hope people will come to Symphony Hall to see and hear, and we will be selecting the person who we think will join us on our journey to advance to a bright future.”
The Phoenix Symphony’s 2024-2-25 season
Most of the Phoenix Symphony’s performances are at Symphony Hall, 75 N. Second St., Phoenix. See the complete schedule and buy tickets at phoenixsymphony.org.
Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at [email protected].
