What a season this has been – Kedrick Armstrong’s first as Music Director of the Oakland Symphony.
Audiences have flocked to the Paramount to experience this potent partnership. Those bold, new works Kedrick has chosen speak to the issues of our time and our place and have brought fresh context to the classics that share the program. You, the Oakland audience, have been acclaimed. “So variegated is the Oakland Symphony audience in age, ethnicity, attire, and attitude,” blogged Joe Horowitz on Arts Journal, “that it resists generalization. Casual, alert, appreciative, demonstrative.”
Last month, Joshua Kosman wrote, “Armstrong brought a degree of lightness and transparency that many conductors don’t even try to match.” Critics rave, audiences roar, and seats are filling fast.
With tonight’s performance, Kedrick’s inaugural season comes to a close. The Oakland Symphony stands as the most progressive voice for great music in the region. Only here could Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the Ninth Symphony, be so powerfully prefaced by Errollyn Wallen’s Ode to Freedom, Mighty River.
The coming 2025-26 season will continue to inspire, to challenge, to take a stand for all. Your subscription demonstrates a dedication to culture when it is needed the most. By subscribing, you take a stand. If you have renewed, thank you for your commitment. If you haven’t, this is the moment to act.
It’s easy and affordable to subscribe. Just visit OaklandSymphony.org or call 510-444-0802. The coming 2025-26 season pairs Verdi’s thunderous Requiem with a premiere by Cava Menzies. Saint-Saëns’ roaring “Organ Symphony” with the Hammond Organ Concerto by Brian Raphael Nabors. The exotic Scheherazade with a new work by Jasmine Barnes. And, of course, this year’s community-wide holiday celebration, Let Us Break Bread Together, will feature a joyous tribute to Whitney Houston.
Could you live without music because music couldn’t live without you. Thank you all for attending Kedrick’s exhilarating inaugural season. We can’t wait to welcome you back for his next.
Warmly,
Dr. Mieko Hatano
Chief Executive Officer
Oakland Symphony
presents
Kedrick Armstrong
Beethoven’s Ninth
Friday, June 13, 2025 8pm
Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Kedrick Armstrong, Conductor
Ash Walker, Chorus Director
ERROLLYN WALLEN (b.1958): Mighty River
INTERMISSION
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9, “Choral”
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Molto vivace
III. Adagio molto e cantabile
IV. Finale: Presto – Allegro assai vivace
Hope Briggs, Soprano
Zoie Reams, Mezzo-soprano
Ashley Faatoalia, Tenor
Adam Lau, Bass
Oakland Symphony Chorus
The 2024-2025 Season of Oakland Symphony is generously funded in part by the East Bay Music Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; and supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.
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VIOLIN 1 | FLUTE |
Sopranos Altos | Tenors Basses |
