Join KSO musicians and ensembles as they perform free concerts throughout our community! Enjoy classical concerts at Kalamazoo First Presbyterian Church, Sarkozy Bakery, Bronson Methodist Hospital and Borgess Hospital. Family focused concerts can be found at several area libraries and offer multimedia opportunities for young music lovers.
Our 98th season, 2018-2019, will "take note" of great masterworks, with an emphasis on French and female composers, feature famed guest artists, present two blockbuster film concerts and welcome a new music director to the podium (June).
A collaboration of KSO and Crescendo Academy of Music, Marvelous Music, is a program that reaches over 600 students in 41 classrooms to build social-emotional skills (active participation, focus, expression) and Kindergarten readiness skills (motor skills, musical aptitude, pre-reading skills) through music and movement.
Welcome to the KSO!
Music. Education. Community.
EMBRACE YOUR KSO!
With our 97th season, the KSO and the community will Embrace! new and exciting adventures. Along with a dozen brilliant soloists and guest artists, we will welcome five Music Director candidates to the podium. Join us for our Symphonic Series concerts and experience your KSO under each candidate’s leadership. Symphonic Preludes, which begin at 7pm, will be one great way to get an up-close and personal sense of each of the finalists. The 97th Season is sure to capture the excitement and imagination of the audience with the 90’s pop sensation – All-4-One and the eagerly anticipated Arrival From Sweden – The Music of ABBA, The Jungle Book in Concert, not to mention the first of three movies in our new Disney agreement, Star Wars: A New Hope, - which is certain to be a sellout. Make sure to check out our new subscription options. The purchase of any three concerts in the season makes you a Create-Your-Own Subscriber and enjoy preferred seating, worry-free exchanges and discounts on most tickets.
We hope you will take a few moments to explore our site and learn more about our history, education programs, concert series, our Music Director Search, and, of course, our talented musicians. We’re committed to ensuring symphonic music is part of everyday life in our community through outstanding musical listening and learning experiences. We look forward to seeing you in the concert hall!
SEASON RECAP:
Our 96th season was all about Making Waves in every way possible! KSO musicians brought outstanding symphonic music to the concert halls and into the community in an array of places - Bronson Methodist Hospital, Sarkozy Bakery and First Presbyterian Church. As the season began, musicians and management ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The KSO commissioned a “Concerto for Orchestra” for its 100th anniversary season in 2020-2021 with world renowned composer André Previn. Maestro Raymond Harvey, after 18 years at the podium, announced his transition, at the conclusion of the 2016-2017 season, to Music Director Emeritus.
And those were only some of the highlights. Our premiere of the KSO original, The Night Before Christmas, The Music of Ellis Hall, and a tribute concert to Mr. Marvin Hamlisch were well received by the community. With the overwhelming success of our last two KSO@The Movies! performances (Disney in Concert - Alice in Wonderland and Disney- Pixar’s Ratatouille in Concert) the KSO has excitedly signed exclusive agreements with Los Angeles based Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency and New York based IMG Artists to bring you Jaws in 2018-2019, E.T. in 2019-2020 and Jurassic Park as part of the KSO’s 100th season in 2020-2021. We were also fortunate to land another exclusive agreement with Disney & Lucas Films to bring Star Wars IV, V & VI in concert to Kalamazoo through the 2019-2020 season.
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra education initiatives saw tremendous growth in Kalamazoo Kids In Tune (KKIT), a partnership with Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo Public Schools, and the Marvelous Music program. Demand increased for in classroom visits with our KSO Artists in Residence and the annual KSO Youth Concerts proudly served more than 13,000 students in 100 Southwest Michigan schools this past spring. Recently added to our education programming is a new education initiative serving children of refugee families recently resettled in Kalamazoo. Orchestra Rouh offers regular, ongoing music instruction to children of Syrian and other refugee families. The program is designed to nurture the emotional wellbeing of children through music instruction, led by teachers who are bilingual in English and Arabic, and including music from Arabic traditions. The program in partnership with the Suzuki Academy of Kalamazoo.
