Welcome to a Diablo Symphony season of music that moves you! Come and hear works that reflect the spirit of the dance and harness the kinetic energy of the natural world. We bring you Diablo Symphony’s popular mix of beloved musical favorites alongside works by composers who deserve more of our collective attention. Our popular family concert opens the season, and we close with a Mother’s Day concert that celebrates creativity and the power and beauty of Mother Earth. Each concert reflects different ways in which music and movement are connected. We can’t wait to share the music with you!
— Matilda Hofman, Music Director and Conductor

Season and individual tickets are now available online or in person at the Lesher Center for the Arts Box Office.

For season tickets, visit or phone the box office (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek; 925-943-7469), or click season tickets online to reach the Lesher Center’s webpage for the DSO’s season; select the “Buy Package” box and proceed as directed.

To purchase tickets for a particular concert, visit or call the Lesher Center box office, or click the concert’s title below; click the “Buy Now” to proceed.

We look forward to seeing you at the symphony!

Family Concert: Peter and the Wolf
Sunday, October 20, 2024 – 2:00 p.m.
Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring: Yen Liang Young Artist Competition winner and Conduct the Orchestra winner

Cindy Silva

Our traditional family concert opens the season! Experience how different composers explore the colors of the orchestra and use them to paint pictures and tell stories. Narrated by Cindy Silva, the delightful story with music “Peter and the Wolf” introduces the listeners to the musical instruments, each representing a different animal or character. And the winner of the DSO’s 2024–2025 Yen Liang Young Artist Competition will perform a wind, brass, or percussion concerto of the winner’s choosing!

Sergei Prokofiev – Peter and the Wolf, with narrator Cindy Silva
Astor Piazzolla (arr. Dean Boysen) – Oblivion
Richard Strauss – “Sunrise” from Also Sprach Zarathustra
Wind, brass or percussion concerto featuring Yen Liang Young Artist Competition winner

Home for the Holidays
Saturday, December 14, 2024 – 2:00 p.m.
Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church

Featuring: The Fratello Marionettes and San Ramon Valley Chorale, Bruce Koliha, Artistic Director

San Ramon Valley Chorale

Fratello Marionettes

This festive event brings joy to all ages! Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in G Minor (“Christmas Concerto”) concludes with a musical image of shepherds rejoicing, capturing the joy of the season also reflected in Pergolesi’s uplifting setting of the Magnificat. The Fratello Marionettes bring scenes from The Nutcracker to life, in interpretations by both Tchaikovsky and Duke Ellington! The San Ramon Valley Chorale’s beautiful singing will complete this holiday celebration.

Archangelo Corelli – Christmas Concerto
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi – Magnificat
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky/Duke Ellington – Nutcracker Suite
Holiday favorites

Sounds of the Americas: American Dance!
Sunday, February 9, 2025 – 2:00 p.m.
Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring: Terrie Baune, violin

Terrie Baune

This orchestral program celebrates the incredible variety of dance music composed and performed in the United States. Florence Price’s 1951 orchestral Suite of Dances reflects the composer’s African American heritage, and Russian émigré Sergei Rachmaninov’s 1941 Symphonic Dances echoes the homeland he fled in 1917. Contemporary American composer Libby Larson describes her 2016 “Dancing Man Rhapsody”—written for our soloist, violinist Terrie Baune—as a “cornucopia of music in motion.”

Florence Price – Suite of Dances
Libby Larsen – Dancing Man Rhapsody
Sergei Rachmaninov – Symphonic Dances 

The Sea in Us
Sunday, March 30, 2025 – 2:00 p.m.
Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring: Evan Kahn, cello

Evan Kahn

The ocean as a force of nature and its reflection of human emotion have inspired composers across the centuries. Debussy’s La Mer (The Sea) forms a magical, ever-changing soundscape that has enchanted audiences for more than a century. Composer-in-residence Josiah Catalan’s ocean-inspired new work—commissioned by the DSO—will transport listeners of today and tomorrow. And cellist extraordinaire Evan Kahn will delight with two wonderful works you won’t often get to hear: Alexander Glazunov’s “Melodies” for cello and orchestra and Erich Korngold’s Cello Concerto.

Josiah Catalan (DSO composer-in-residence) – The Sea in Us (world premiere)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Cello Concerto
Alexander Glazunov – Melodie
Claude Debussy – La Mer

A Musical Mother’s Day: River Journeys
Sunday, May 11, 2025 – 2:00 p.m.
Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring: Amy Likar, piccolo

Amy Likar

Travel down the Mississippi with Florence Price and the Moldau with Bedřich Smetana, respectively, in a Mother’s Day concert that celebrates musical creativity and the beauty of Mother Earth. The melodic and rhythmic ebb and flow of Price’s Mississippi Suite reveals the landscapes, birds, and people in the lands of southern spirituals and New Orleans jazz, and Smetana’s  “The Moldau,” capturing the composer’s love of his homeland, flows past jubilant hunters, a village wedding, a legendary gorge, and whitewater rapids before reaching Prague and its Bohemian castle, Vyšehrad. And Rokeach’s creative Piccolo Concerto, featuring soloist Amy Likar, takes the listener on an optimistic and celebratory journey while also showcasing the instrument’s uniquely sweet-toned low register.

Florence Price – Mississippi River Suite
Martin Rokeach – Piccolo Concerto
Bedřich Smetana – The Moldau