Park Avenue Chamber Symphony

07/10/2026

On the eve of our full release, Gramophone has weighed in on our Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony recording:

"Bernard conducts as he argues: deliberate tempos, syntax spelt out, paragraphs squared. The cyclic design has seldom been easier to follow. The Maestoso chord, arriving from all directions, is the InsideOut thesis made flesh; its spatial spread is striking... It commands respect."

And the timing couldn't be better — the full album is out tomorrow, Friday, July 10! Everything comes together: the Poco adagio where the organ and orchestra merge into one, the virtuosic third movement, and the Finale that so many of you already know and love.

The full album is available now: https://orcd.co/saintsaensorgansymphony

07/09/2026

Another review for our Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony album, from InfoDad.com —

"Particularly well done… Bernard does an excellent job of seeing the symphony as a totality, with quiet precision tempered by some genuine sweetness, showcasing the especially impressive strings, whose easy elegance fits this music particularly well."

And the timing couldn't be better — the full album is out tomorrow, Friday, July 10! Everything comes together: the Poco adagio where the organ and orchestra merge into one, the virtuosic third movement, and the Finale that so many already know and love.

Listen to the whole album starting tomorrow: https://orcd.co/saintsaensorgansymphony

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06/18/2026

🎵 Mark your calendars — our live recording of Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony") with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony releases July 10, 2026.

Pre-add the album now and you'll receive two tracks instantly — before release day:

🎹 June 19 — Tomorrow: The third movement — brilliant, powerful, and showcasing the kind of virtuoso piano writing that defined Saint-Saëns as one of the great pianists of his era. Pianist Keyi Wang brings electrifying brilliance to writing that is Saint-Saëns at his most dazzling.

🎺 July 3: The Finale — featuring the famous theme you know from the film Babe, the triumphant organ proclamation with organist Paolo Bordignon, and the full force of orchestra, organ, and piano together. The payoff of one of the greatest symphonies ever written.

Pre-add now to unlock both tracks as they drop: https://orcd.co/saintsaensorgansymphony

David Bernard / Park Avenue Chamber Symphony / Paolo Bordignon, Organ

05/20/2026

“Bernard’s conducting was, as always, expressive, precise, and artistically impeccable. His cues — subtle agogic accents here, an unmistakable sforzando there — were communicated with such plasticity that the musicians responded musically in kind, breathing as one. His commentary, moreover, illuminated rather than intruded; he is a peripatetic guide of the highest order, a cicerone for music lovers and aficionados alike. Above all, what struck this listener was the evident love between podium and ensemble, a relationship of mutual artistic trust forged over decades of shared music-making.”

Thank you to all who attended Spellbinding Strauss on Saturday. It was a pleasure to share the stage with you.

Immerse yourself in Spellbinding Strauss: a captivating concert by David Bernard and the PACS, redefined for a personal experience.

04/12/2026

SPELLBINDING STRAUSS PREVIEW: DON JUAN
Tickets for 5/16: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/immersive-concerts-25-26-4325463

Richard Strauss' Don Juan is a work consumed by pursuit — a protagonist of almost superhuman persistence, driven by an unrelenting search for an ideal of perfection that continually slips from his grasp, leaving him both off-kilter and undeterred.

On May 16th, experience this and much more at Spellbinding Strauss — an InsideOut concert led by Maestro David Bernard where the music puts you on a path of self-discovery from inside the orchestra itself.

-Don Juan: obsession embodied. You're not watching him pursue the ideal — you're inside the momentum, the hunger, the dissolution.

-Death and Transfiguration: a 24-year-old constructing a complete human life arc — birth to death to beyond — with the philosophical gravity of someone who had already lived it. He hadn't. He just understood it.

-Four Last Songs (featuring Soprano Sara Pearson): Strauss at the end of his life, returning to the same terrain. Quieter now. No striving. Just confirmation — the vision was right from the beginning.

InsideOut places you inside the orchestra. Strauss places you inside the human arc. Together, there's nothing between you and the music.

Come feel it.

Two events on Saturday, May 16 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City (450 West 37th Street, Between 9th and 10th Avenues):
5PM – Full Immersive Concert + Post-Concert Reception

2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo Tickets:

03/29/2026

SPELLBINDING STRAUSS ON MAY 16 AT THE DIMENNA CENTER
For Strauss, music could depict a soul — an entire life, struggle, passion, collapse, transcendence, rendered with absolute completeness. On May 16th Strauss's obsession becomes ours: to experience a full life — and beyond — compressed into minutes through a visceral musical experience.
Get your tickets to Spellbinding Strauss — an InsideOut concert where the music puts you on a path of self-discovery from inside the orchestra itself.
• Don Juan: obsession embodied. You're not watching him pursue the ideal — you're inside the momentum, the hunger, the dissolution.
• Death and Transfiguration: a 24-year-old constructing a complete human life arc — birth to death to beyond — with the philosophical gravity of someone who had already lived it. He hadn't. He just understood it.
• Four Last Songs (featuring Soprano Sara Pearson): Strauss at the end of his life, returning to the same terrain. Quieter now. No striving. Just confirmation — the vision was right from the beginning.

InsideOut places you inside the orchestra. Strauss places you inside the human arc. Together, there's nothing between you and the music.
Come feel it.

Two events on Saturday, May 16 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City (450 West 37th Street, Between 9th and 10th Avenues):
5PM – Full Immersive Concert + Post-Concert Reception
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spellbinding-strauss-the-full-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369210157439
2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/spellbinding-strauss-the-family-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369209003989
Audience Comments
"Absolutely and positively one of the best experiences ever! This is a smart investment in the future growth of symphony audiences."
"We've become musical 'converts' solely due to your InsideOut concert experience and thoroughly anticipate the next one."
"I have been to many concerts at the world's great concert halls, but none were close to as memorable as the InsideOut concert I experienced on Sunday. I have never in my life engaged with music as holistically or dramatically--as ecstatically--as I did while sitting on stage among those musicians. Indeed, I have never been so fully enveloped like that in such magnificent sound. It was a thrill of a lifetime!"

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02/18/2026

Thank you to our sold-out audience and the fine musicians of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony for sharing a brilliant, beautiful and meaningful experience.

02/17/2026

Symphony Magazine: Immersive Schubert Review

Thank you to our sold-out audience for sharing a brilliant, beautiful and meaningful experience.

In last Monday’s (2/9) Front Row Center (New York City), Edward Kliszus writes, “Those who braved the arctic chill and made their way to the DiMenna Center for Classical Music [on February 7] were rewarded with something far warmer than any furnace could provide. The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony...

02/09/2026

“The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS), under the baton of its visionary Music Director David Bernard, presented “Sublime Schubert,” a program of staggering beauty and intellectual depth that transformed the hall into a sanctuary of tonal radiance and communal warmth. The evening began with Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, the celebrated “Unfinished,” and here Bernard made a decision both generous and symbolically resonant. He honored this work—written by a young man overflowing with melodic invention—by placing it in the hands of another young man: his son, James Bernard, who served as guest conductor for the performance. James Bernard took the podium with the aplomb of a conductor far beyond his years. His cues were clear and confident; his expression was articulate; his command of dynamics and articulation conveyed the kind of gestural authority that elicited an immediate, musical response from the players. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 (“Great”) was magnificent. David Bernard’s conducting was its usual expressive, precise, and deeply artistic self—a masterclass in orchestral leadership. His rubato was judicious, his accelerandi thrilling, his pianissimi gossamer-thin and achingly beautiful. Throughout this demanding work, the PACS musicians prevailed with remarkable aplomb—the orchestra’s sustained concentration and musical cohesion were nothing short of exemplary. Maestro David Bernard, commanding and eloquent at the helm, demonstrated once again why he has been called “the Johnny Appleseed of Classical Music”—a champion and evangelist for an art form that too many have written off as inaccessible or irrelevant. James Bernard, stepping confidently into the spotlight, proved himself a conductor of genuine promise and musical sensitivity. And the men and women of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony played with the kind of devotion, precision, and heartfelt expression that honors not only the composer but the art of music itself.”

02/09/2026

A sublime evening deserves a sublime review--bravo and thank you to the fine musicians of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and Guest Conductor James Bernard for the accomplishment and for bringing warmth to our audience on this very cold day.

“The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony (PACS), under the baton of its visionary Music Director David Bernard, presented “Sublime Schubert,” a program of staggering beauty and intellectual depth that transformed the hall into a sanctuary of tonal radiance and communal warmth. The evening began with Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, the celebrated “Unfinished,” and here Bernard made a decision both generous and symbolically resonant. He honored this work—written by a young man overflowing with melodic invention—by placing it in the hands of another young man: his son, James Bernard, who served as guest conductor for the performance. James Bernard took the podium with the aplomb of a conductor far beyond his years. His cues were clear and confident; his expression was articulate; his command of dynamics and articulation conveyed the kind of gestural authority that elicited an immediate, musical response from the players. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 (“Great”) was magnificent. David Bernard’s conducting was its usual expressive, precise, and deeply artistic self—a masterclass in orchestral leadership. His rubato was judicious, his accelerandi thrilling, his pianissimi gossamer-thin and achingly beautiful. Throughout this demanding work, the PACS musicians prevailed with remarkable aplomb--the orchestra’s sustained concentration and musical cohesion were nothing short of exemplary. Maestro David Bernard, commanding and eloquent at the helm, demonstrated once again why he has been called “the Johnny Appleseed of Classical Music”—a champion and evangelist for an art form that too many have written off as inaccessible or irrelevant. James Bernard, stepping confidently into the spotlight, proved himself a conductor of genuine promise and musical sensitivity. And the men and women of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony played with the kind of devotion, precision, and heartfelt expression that honors not only the composer but the art of music itself.”

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony’s “Sublime Schubert” concert was a transcendent evening of immersive orchestral artistry. Under David Bernard’s visionary leadership and the InsideOut Concert format, audiences experienced Schubert’s Eighth and Ninth Symphonies from inside the orchestra—a...