HAMMOND ORGAN CONCERTO
plus 
SAINT-SAËNS THUNDERING 
ORGAN SYMPHONY

Friday, March 27, 2026, 8 PM
Paramount Theatre, Oakland 

Kedrick Armstrong, conductor
Brian Raphael Nabors, organ
Jerome Lenk, organ

CLARICE ASSAD 
Baião N’ Blues

BRIAN RAPHAEL NABORS 
Hammond Organ Concerto

INTERMISSION

CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 
Symphony No. 3, “Organ”

Season Presenting Sponsor: Bell Investment Advisors
Season Wine Sponsor: Retzlaff Vineyards
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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On July 8, 1660, English diarist Samuel Pepys, one of the earliest, most curious, and credible chroniclers of music in his time, wrote: “To White Hall chapel, where I heard very good music, the first time that ever I remember to have heard the organs and singing-men in surplices in my life.”  He was 27 years old, and  England had just restored the monarchy.  During Cromwell’s time, Parliament passed ordinances “for the speedy demolishing of all organs, images and all matters of superstitious monuments in all Cathedrals.”

Can you imagine the effect on someone so consciously musical at Pepys hearing and feeling that volcanic organ sound for the first time?   

That sound, power, and  love for the organ has led Kedrick Armstrong to conceive tonight’s program:  “The first time that I walked into the Paramount and learned about the history of this theater as a film theater and about its iconic organ I immediately wanted to program something that celebrates this instrument.  I also wanted to bring my own background, growing up playing the Hammond B3 organ.  I went scouring the earth for a Hammond organ concerto. Someone had to have written one. And I was so excited when I found out that Brian Nabors had done so in 2020 for himself to perform.  I don't think there's anything more Oakland than pairing a Hammond organ concerto with the Saint- Saëns’ Organ Symphony.”

Like all Oakland Symphony concerts, tonight’s is a one and only experience.   Never to be repeated.   Never to be forgotten. The Paramount may be the only concert space in the nation where the line between performer and audience simply dissolves.   

“Mission mirrored in music,” is how San Francisco Classical Voice experienced it.  What the Oakland Symphony stands for is what we all stand for.  What the orchestra values is what we all value.   

Subscribers have these unique experiences six times each season.  If you are not yet a subscriber, this would be the moment to consider being part of the 2026-27 season.   And you may do so during intermission in the lobby.  New subscribers can begin their season here on Friday, May 15.

That concert concludes this season when Kedrick conducts Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Nathaniel Dett’s stirring, too rarely encountered “The Ordering of Moses.”  Dett’s 1937 work was the first major composition by a living Black composer ever to be nationally broadcast.  

Nearly 90 years after that historic event, the Oakland Symphony will perform Dett’s masterpiece and we will share the glory of this great neglected work together.   

Sincerely, 
Dr. Mieko Hatano
Chief Executive Officer