Dance: The Hidden Language of the Sould
2026-20267Concert One

Sunday, October25, 2026 | 2PM
Sammamish Hills Lutheran Church
22818 SE 8th Street, Sammamish, WA 98074

The Sammamish Symphony opens its 2026-27 with a celebration of dance music, with particular emphasis on compositions that combine folk elements with classical techniques. Country dances by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven share the bill with Bela Bartók's  Romanian Folk Dances and two ballet scores that respectively glorify the folk music of Spain and Brazil: Manuel de Falla's El amor brujo and Darius Milhaud's giddy surrrealist ballet  Le Bœuf sur le toit, inspired by the composer's love of Brazilian songs and dance rhythms.

Holidays in Sammamish
2026-2027 Concert Two

Sunday, December 6, 2026 | 2PM
Eastlake Performing Arts Center

The orchestra will celebrate the joys of the season with its characteristic mixture of holiday favorites (including orchestral settings of We Three Kings and Jingle Bells), a medley of holiday songs from blockbuster movies, excerpts from Engelbert Humperdinck's Christmastime favorite Hansel and Gretel, some Johann Strauss, Jr. to ring in the New Year, and some surprises from the symphonic repertoire. Join us for this heartwarming festival of holiday jubilation.

A Mighty Fortress: Mendelssohn’s “Reformation”

2026-2027 Concert Three

Sunday, February 21, 2027 | 2 PM
Eastlake Performing Arts Center

Any excellent orchestra is a storehouse of fine musicianship, and the Sammamish Symphony is proud to bring the talents of two of its finest core musicians to the forefront in this concert. Principal Horn Natalie Worden-Cowe will take center stage for Richard Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1, and trombonist Geoff Ogle's gifts as a composer will be represented by his Dance Suite for wind ensemble. The program concludes with Felix Mendelssohn's dramatic and inspiring Symphony No. 5, the "Reformation", as brilliant as the composer's "Scottish" and "Italian" symphonies but not nearly as well known.

A Night Out with the Sammamish Symphony
2026-2027 Concert Four

Friday, March 19, 2027 | 2PM
Location TBD

An intimate concert presented in an intimate setting, this program will feature the orchestra's winds and brass in a program of delectable works from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Chamber works by Franz Joseph Haydn, Donal Michalsky, and Gustav Schreck will commingle in a delightful program that will also feature Charles Gounod's exquisite Petite Symphonie for winds.

Overtures and Concertos
2026-2027 Concert Five

Sunday, April 25, 2027 | 2PM
Eastlake Performing Arts Center

Two monumental works for multiple  soloists with orchestra — Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante — will be performed by our special guests Maria Sampen, violin and Timothy Christie, viola, with Sammamish Symphony flutists Melissa Underhill and Elana Sabovic-Matt. Bookending the concert will be two works of great good humor: Gordon Jacob's parody overture The Barber of Seville Goes to the Devil, and Otto Nicolai's overture to his opera The Merry Wives of Windsor, based on Shakespeare's play about that most rakish of knights, Sir John Falstaff.

20th Century Masterworks
2026-2027 Concert Six

Sunday, June 6, 2027 | 2PM
Eastlake Performing Arts Center

A crazy-quilt of 20th-century orchestral music, the Sammamish Symphony's season finale presents works by English, Russian, Australian, and American composers. Aaron Copland's little-known miniature John Henry, based on the folksong about the legendary railroad worker, begins a concert featuring delightful abstractions (Igor Stravinsky's Eight Instrumental Miniatures), a breathtaking evocation of nature (Gustav Holst's A Somerset Rhapsody), a nostalgic backward look at childhood (Percy Grainger's Children's March), and a madcap ballet about a troupe of travelling clowns (Dmitri Kabalevsky's The Comedians). A unique concert, not to be missed.