MSU Symphony Orchestra

09/25/2026

First rehearsal in the Wharton Center this season! 🎶

We’re putting the final touches on Spring Dawn to American Horizons, and we can’t wait to share it with you tonight.

🕢 7:30 PM
📍 Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center

See you tonight! 💚

09/22/2026

Our season begins this Friday! 🎶
Join the MSU Symphony Orchestra for Spring Dawn to American Horizons—an evening that moves from a celebratory opening fanfare by Kevin Charoensri and the color and energy of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps to the sweeping landscapes of Copland’s Symphony No. 3, culminating in the iconic Fanfare for the Common Man.
Conducted by Octavio Más-Arocas, Zongheng Zhang , and Junting Yi .
📅 Friday, September 25
🕢 7:30 PM
📍 Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center
We can’t wait to share this music with you!

04/15/2026

Join the MSU Symphony Orchestra for Rhythms in Motion: A Celebration of Dance on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at Wharton Center. Conducted by Octavio Más-Arocas, and , this program brings together music inspired by rhythm, movement, elegance, and energy. 

Featuring selections from Der Rosenkavalier, Bolero, Hellfighters’ Blues, and Mariachitlán, and fanfare by . This concert celebrates the many ways dance lives within orchestral sound. 

We hope you will join us for an evening of color, momentum, and musical vitality.

04/15/2026

From darkness to light. Join us for an evening of contemporary music as Musique 21 presents From Darkness to Light on Monday, April 20, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. in Fairchild Theatre. This program features six contemporary works centered on transformation, tension, and reflection. 

The concert includes music by Raven Chacon, David Biedenbender, David Lang, Đuro Živković, Mary Kouyoumdjian, and Andrea Clearfield, performed by Musique 21 under the direction of , with and . 

We invite you to experience a program that moves through shadow, intensity, color, and illumination.

03/18/2026

MSU Symphony Orchestra Honors Concert
A night celebrating the incredible student soloists at MSU, featuring winners of the Honors Concerto Competition with the MSU Symphony Orchestra and Firebird by Stravinsky 🐦‍🔥
📅 Friday, March 20, 2026 • 7:30 PM
📍 Wharton Center (Cobb Great Hall)
🎼Octavio Más-Arocas& Zongheng Zhang, conductor
🎵 Featuring soloists Wanwan Yang , piano & Diego Chapela-Perez, and composer Katahj Copley.
Come support your friends, your studio, and the next generation of amazing performers. See you there 💚🤍

01/27/2026

🌌✨ MSU Symphony Orchestra is going cosmic.
📅 Friday, Feb 6, 2026 • 7:30 PM
📍 Cobb Great Hall, Wharton Center (MSU)
Program
🎶 Gustav Holst: The Planets
🎶 Gala Flagello : Everything Beautiful
🎶 Zhengcheng (Momo) He : Bloom
From the intimate to the infinite, this concert moves from new music to one of the most iconic orchestral “space journeys” ever written. Come hear Mars shake the room and Neptune disappear into mystery. 🌍🪐

01/26/2026

What an incredible afternoon of music. After amazing performances from all our finalists, we’re excited to announce the winners of this year’s Concerto Competition! 🎶✨

🏆 Congratulations to:
🎹 Wanwan Yang — Piano .yyy
🪈 Ivo Shin — Flute
🎷 Diego Chapela — Saxophone

A huge thank-you to all the finalists for such inspiring performances today—you made this competition truly special. 👏🌟

The winners will perform their concertos with the MSU Symphony Orchestra in March. We can’t wait to hear them again! 🎻🔥

01/23/2026

This weekend, on Sunday afternoon in Cook Recital Hall, several Music students will compete in the Honors Concerto Competition. We strongly encourage you to attend and cheer them on!

Finalists include
pianists , Jingwei Yuan, .yyy , and ,
saxophonists .sax and , flutist , and clarinetist .

The concert presents a wide variety of repertoire, and winners will be announced immediately following the concert as selected by a panel of external jurors.

11/19/2025