Welcome letter from Music Director and Conductor Dr. Rob Davis

Season 2023-2024 Concerts

Dear friends, welcome to the Southwest Washington Symphony’s 57th season! This year marks my 10th anniversary as director, and I, along with the musicians of the orchestra, look forward to sharing the joy of live, local, symphonic music with you once again. We are happy to continue offering all our concerts this season free of charge, thanks to the generosity of individual donors and the sponsorship of local businesses. We invite everyone to make a supporting donation in order to keep our concerts free and available to all. Our season begins with a unique masterworks program at the Wollenberg Auditorium on LCC campus in October, in which we’ll feature 8 of our own orchestral musicians as soloists for a delightful and varied Evening of Concertos. Additionally, the full orchestra will perform Leonard Bernstein’s sparkling Overture to Candide, as well as the Ràkóczy (Hungarian) March from “La Damnation de Faust” by Berlioz. Our traditional Christmas concerts will be held in a new location this December! By special invitation we will perform at the Journey Seventh Day Adventist Church (1185 Westside Highway), where we’ll ring in the season with festive and familiar music for choir and orchestra. As always, donations collected at these concerts will be offered to local charities. In February 2024 our Family and Children’s concerts at the historic Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts will explore music of mysteries, including soundtrack music from Mission: Impossible, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Catch Me If You Can, as well as Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite” including the well known In the Hall of the Mountain King. We will also feature A Major-Minor Mystery: a delightful introduction to the instruments of the orchestra framed as a farcical “who-dunnit” as we attempt to discover who was responsible for turning the major to minor. The season concludes in April at the Wollenberg auditorium with Spring Concerts featuring this year’s Young Artist Solo Competition winner, as well as singers from local high school choirs performing Vivaldi’s timeless Gloria with the orchestra. Copland’s beloved Appalachian Spring and Brahms’ rousing Hungarian Dance no. 5 will form a fitting end to this special anniversary season. The printed programs contain dates, repertoire, and information for the entire season, which we hope will allow you to learn about, and make plans to attend, each concert. We also encourage you to note the advertisers, friends, patrons, and sponsors whose faithful financial support is so critical to our success. A directory of sponsoring advertisers is listed in this program. We look forward to bringing you a season of inspiring orchestral music. See you at the concerts! Sincerely, Rob Davis, D.M.A. Music Director and Conductor Southwest Washington Symphony

Christmas Concerts Saturday, December 9 7:00 p.m. & Sunday, December 10 3:00 p.m.

Seventh-day Adventist Church 1185 Westside Hwy Kelso, WA (near Lexington).

The Symphony and Symphony Chorale again combine forces to present a gift of holiday music to the community. Donations from these concerts will be offered to local charities.