Henry Segerstrom News

Pacific Chorale, the resident choir of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, will be presenting its popular holiday concerts in December.

It's a new, heartwarming, humorous and delightful way to celebrate the holidays when 'Family Guy' creator and highly talented vocalist, Seth MacFarlane, makes his Pacific Symphony debut.

Celebrate the season with the king of instruments! Bringing joy to the world is premier organist Todd Wilson, who returns to Pacific Symphony for a heart-warming night of holiday music featuring the resplendent William J. Gillespie Concert Organ. For this year's annual endeavor, Holiday Organ Spectacular, the color, beauty and versatility of the organ, performed by Wilson, unites with Symphony musicians Ben Smolen, flute; Elliott Moreau, bassoon; Barry Perkins, trumpet; Mindy Ball, harp; Robert Slack, percussion; and Timothy Landauer, cello to spotlight a stirring mix of classical and popular Christmas carols. The thrilling sonorities of the pipe organ, along with superb instrumentalists playing a wide variety of holiday music, makes this a festive holiday event for listeners of all ages.

Argentina's sultry and sensuous dance takes center stage at Segerstrom Center for the Arts when Tango Buenos Aires performs The Spirit of Argentina November 18 & 19.

Awe-inspiring sounds of praise ring out as Pacific Symphony is joined by Pacific Chorale for the triumphant annual holiday celebration, Handel's Glorious Messiah, celebrating the birth of Christ. A holiday tradition across the world, Messiah has been performed for more than 275 years, but with each new conductor, orchestra and soloists, it becomes a fresh and newly invigorating experience. This year is especially meaningful as Orange County's own John Alexander (Pacific Chorale's Artistic Director Emeritus) returns to the podium to lead the Symphony along with the Chorale and a host of globally distinguished soloists, including the outstanding tenor, Jason Francisco. Full of brilliant choral writing, thundering timpani and blazing trumpets, Messiah energizes its audience and leaves them singing, Hallelujah!

Visions of sugar plums will dance in their heads, when audiences of all ages are mesmerized by the magic, wonder and imagination of Tchaikovsky's treasured ballet during Pacific Symphony's Nutcracker for Kids.

Performing with Pacific Symphony for the first time is international sensation, Chinese pianist Xiayin Wang, whose sublime talent gives fresh, dynamic energy to Gershwin's Concerto in F.

The Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Segerstrom Center for the Arts will co-present Tod Browning's 1931 film classic DRACULA starring Bela Lugosi with original music by Philip Glass performed live by the legendary composer at the piano, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet, with Michael Riesman directing from the keyboard.

Once upon a time there was an awesome concert called 'Stories and Myths,' held by Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO) to open their 2017-18 season of musical delights.

It will be difficult for Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) to top last season's milestone 10th anniversary, culminating in a triumphant European Tour, but if anyone can, it's this highly talented group of young musicians.

Pacific Chorale, the resident choir of Segerstrom Center for the Arts, will be kick-starting its 50th anniversary season with a bang when it premieres A Celestial Map of the Sky by internationally renowned composer Tarik O'Regan.

Pacific Symphony's perennially popular program, OC Can You Play With Us?, has been inviting amateur musicians from across Orange County to perform onstage with orchestra members for almost seven years now. What began as a one-time endeavor in 2011 to expose the community's musicians to professional music education and performance has continued to grow and morph with each passing year. In 2014, the Symphony expanded the program to include a chamber music edition that would allow for a more intimate learning and playing experience.

It's definitely got that swing! Pacific Symphony Pops 2017-18 season roars on with a celebration of one of the 20th century's most iconic singers Ella Fitzgerald, whose legacy and influence defined a classic era of jazz singing on what would have been her 100th birthday.

Can you feel it? There's big excitement (and a little good-natured fear) in the air! It's time to not only celebrate Halloween with Pacific Symphony in a new and spooky way, but also to attend the 13th Annual Despicable Villains' Choice Awards! Revel in the loveable villains of the world with the most fearfully prestigious of all awards The Golden Poison Apple. Emceed by Vex Mudlark (the evil host), Piper Parallax (Vex's evil cohort), and Axel Frankenstein (the assistant). This unique awards show calls upon the audience to select music to be performed during the concert. Celebrate the holiday with frightfully fun film music from favorite movies such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Nightmare Before Christmas and more. Of course, because it is a villains' awards show, not everything is quite as it seems

Garrick Ohlsson joins Pacific Symphony for Mozart's Ninth Piano Concerto. The versatile Norwegian conductor Rune Bergmann steps in as conductor to replace the injured Andr Previn.

Pacific Symphony's 2017-18 Pops season bursts out of the gate when the Symphony welcomes for the first time one of the most successful music producers/entertainers in history 16-time Grammy Award winner David Foster!

Pacific Symphony regrets to announce that Andr Previn scheduled to conduct concerts on October 19, 20 and 21 in the Ren e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at 8 p.m. has canceled due to injury. He is under doctor's orders not to travel.

Tony, Grammy and Emmy winning star Audra McDonald returns to Segerstrom Center for the Arts for an up close and personal concert on Friday, May 11, 2018 in the Rene?e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Accompanied by her trio, McDonald will bring her vivacious personality and artistry to hit show tunes, classic film songs and selections written expressly for her by many of today's leading composers. The New York Times wrote of her Carnegie Hall concert, "That sense of excitement, in which she tugs a song forward emotionally, is inherent in the quickness and tang of her vibrato, as though feelings are pouring out of her almost faster than they can be reined in."

Pacific Symphony 2017-18 season continues to soar with a very special evening starring the reigning virtuoso of the violin, Joshua Bell, who enjoys a superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Bell joins the orchestra, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, for an extraordinary, one-night-only special event featuring the heart-stopping beauty of Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto, which in the hands of this beloved master is an experience not to be missed. The Boston Herald proclaimed that, "Joshua Bell is the greatest American violinist active today."

Pacific Symphony's 39th season is off and soaring like a heaven-bound rocket, beginning with a grand opening to remember! Featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, "Don Juan" by Strauss, and selections from Wagner's "Die Walkure," from the composer's "Ring" cycle, performed by the orchestra for the first time since 1988. The concert is conducted by Music Director Carl St.Clair, who led Wagner's "Ring Cycle" to critical acclaim as music director of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle in Weimar, Germany. And, featured in his first-ever appearance with the Symphony is international opera star, Greer Grimsley, whose stunning bass-baritone brings Wotan dramatically to life.