By Peter Kjome, President and CEO
May 26, 2023
Dear Friends,
This has been a remarkable and inspirational spring at The Phoenix Symphony.
Thank you for your enthusiastic participation over the past few months. Together, we experienced incredibly moving concerts in Symphony Hall and other venues. Our musicians also performed in schools, health care settings, and other places across the Valley to enrich lives through the joy of live music.
It is time to look toward the bright future of our great orchestra. We believe that the year ahead will be one of the most important in our history, and the progress we make in partnership with our community will affect the trajectory of the Symphony for many years to come.
As we look ahead to an extraordinary 2023-24 Season, we are committed to our mission of providing extraordinary musical experiences that inspire and advance our community, enriching the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. You will not want to miss the wonderful concerts scheduled for our 77th season. We are excited to share this with you and invite you to join us as a series subscriber.
With the support of our community, we serve Phoenix and Arizona as an innovative leader in artistic excellence, engagement, and education – and our service goes well beyond performances in the concert hall. Each year, our music education and community engagement programs reach an economically and ethnically diverse group of over 125,000 participants. These programs include concerts and musical exploration opportunities, and small ensembles that regularly visit schools across our community.
One of our programs, Mind Over Music®, is an integrative teaching program that pairs Symphony musicians with teachers to leverage music understanding to teach STEM concepts in the classroom. Our B Sharp Health and Wellness programs use science-based methodologies to harness the healing power of music to improve the quality of life for those living in homeless shelters, nursing homes, or memory care facilities and patients in hospice. These programs positively affect the lives of the residents, patients, and caregivers.
With your help, we have expanded our Classical Connections and Symphony Connections programs, offering beloved classical musical performances at no cost to the public in Maricopa County Community Colleges auditoriums and other public spaces throughout the Valley. Additionally, our partnership with The Veteran Tickets Foundation and other programs to reduce economic barriers donated more than 5,000 tickets to Symphony concerts to active duty and veteran families, as well as low-income students.
Whether you are a lifelong resident of Phoenix and Arizona or a relatively recent arrival like me, this is your Symphony. Thank you for your passion and participation that enables the work of one of Arizona’s most important cultural assets.
Sincerely,
Peter Kjome, President & CEO
