TO THESE SHORES

Friday, February 20, 2026, 8 PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland 

Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Tracy Silverman, violin
Zach Salsburg-Frank, interim chorus conductor
Oakland Symphony Chorus

CHEN YI 
Introduction, Andante, and Allegro

REENA ESMAIL 
She Will Transform You

INTERMISSION

GUSTAV MAHLER 
Symphony No. 10, Adagio

DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN (DBR) * 
America, To US
     World Premiere – Oakland Symphony Commission

Season Presenting Sponsor: Bell Investment Advisors
Season Wine Sponsor: Retzlaff Vineyards
* Artist in Residence, Season 2024-2025 & 2025-2026
The 2025-2026 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; and supported by the Oakland City Council and funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program.

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Kedrick Armstrong conceived tonight’s program just over a year ago.  Back then (and it now feels quite long ago) it seemed improbable that a concert featuring four composers once openly welcomed to these shores would be performed when that sense of welcome would be so profoundly challenged.  

Yet here we are.  Multiple tragic events in Minneapolis and around the nation remind us how fragile are our freedoms.  Tonight’s program offers an unanticipated perspective.  

In considering this concert in the current context, Kedrick recently observed “Everyone who has dealt with the journey of coming to America and making America home has faced difficult, unbearable moments. But those moments have led to the beauty that we all live in. Hope to live in. And aspire to live in now.”

Music gives us hope and strength. The courage to resist and persist, which is the theme of the just announced 2026-27 season.  It features composers who challenged the tenor of their times, and who resisted and persisted.  When we hear their music, we validate their voices and affirm their truths. 

Such programming is exclusively Oakland.  It’s why so many more of you each year choose to subscribe to the full season. 

If you are a subscriber and haven’t yet renewed, you may do so during intermission in the lobby. If you didn’t bring your renewal form, don’t worry. There’s a copy here waiting for you.  

And if you would like to join our growing family of devoted subscribers, this is the moment. New subscribers can begin their season in May when Kedrick Armstrong conducts Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Nathaniel Dett’s stirring, too rarely encountered “The Ordering of Moses.” You may subscribe tonight in the lobby during intermission.  

A community as rich as this one offers many options for you to invest your cultural dollars.  By choosing the Oakland Symphony you have taken a stand.  Here in this space, you are one with the musicians.  The energy you bring to these concerts is palpable and it is thrilling for all of us at the Oakland Symphony to be actively engaged with you.   

Sincerely, 
Dr. Mieko Hatano
Chief Executive Officer