Park Avenue Chamber Symphony

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...

02/05/2026

SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 7 AT 2PM: IMMERSIVE FAMILY CONCERT &  INSTRUMENT ZOO
Don’t miss this unforgettable InsideOut Concerts® experience as you and your family take your seat INSIDE A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA on Saturday, February 7 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in NYC.

Audience Comments:
“Incredible! Took my husband and three girls where we sat between the violins and flutes. When talking about our favorite things we did during our trip (the girls’ first) to NYC, this was at the top of everyone’s list. I’d never heard of anything like this and everyone who saw the videos I posted online thought it looked amazing too. I literally started crying the second the music began because I was so happy to be there. The instrument zoo afterwards was also fun for the kids!”  
“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!”
 
ImmersiveConcert ClassicalMusicNYC ParkAvenueChamberSymphony FamilyConcert OrchestraLife MusicAdventure NYCClassical ClassicalMusicLovers SymphonyExperience OrchestralJourney

02/04/2026

As you and your family take your seat INSIDE A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, you will be overwhelmed as you see, feel and hear the incredibly moving and captivating music of Franz Schubert--music that pulls you into a world of mystery and suspense, yet bold, expansive and unstoppable. Don't miss this unforgettable InsideOut Concerts® experience on Saturday, February 7 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in NYC.

Two events on Saturday, February 7:
2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-family-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369178131649

5PM – Full Immersive Concert + Post-Concert Reception
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-full-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369197700179

Audience Comments:
“Incredible! Took my husband and three girls where we sat between the violins and flutes. When talking about our favorite things we did during our trip (the girls’ first) to NYC, this was at the top of everyone’s list. I’d never heard of anything like this and everyone who saw the videos I posted online thought it looked amazing too. I literally started crying the second the music began because I was so happy to be there. The instrument zoo afterwards was also fun for the kids!”
"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!"

02/02/2026

THIS SATURDAY: IMMERSIVE CONCERT + INSTRUMENT ZOO FOR FAMILIES
As you and your family take your seat INSIDE A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, you will be overwhelmed as you see, feel and hear the incredibly moving and captivating music of Franz Schubert--music that pulls you into a world of mystery and suspense, yet bold, expansive and unstoppable. Don't miss this unforgettable InsideOut Concerts® experience on Saturday, February 7 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in NYC.
Two events on Saturday, February 7:

2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-family-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369178131649

5PM – Full Immersive Concert + Post-Concert Reception
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-full-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369197700179

Audience Comments:
“Incredible! Took my husband and three girls where we sat between the violins and flutes. When talking about our favorite things we did during our trip (the girls’ first) to NYC, this was at the top of everyone’s list. I’d never heard of anything like this and everyone who saw the videos I posted online thought it looked amazing too. I literally started crying the second the music began because I was so happy to be there. The instrument zoo afterwards was also fun for the kids!”

"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!"

01/31/2026

TODAY is FRANZ SCHUBERT'S BIRTHDAY!
Get your tickets to SUBLIME SCHUBERT on Sat. 2/7 where you will experience intense beauty and poetry of Schubert's Symphony No. 8 ("Unfinished") and Symphony No. 9 ("Great") from YOUR SEAT INSIDE A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

Two events on Saturday, February 7 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/sublime-schubert-the-full-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369197700179

2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-family-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369178131649

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!”

OrchestraLife ClassicalMusicLovers

01/31/2026

SAT, 2/7 AT 2PM: IMMERSIVE FAMILY CONCERT
As you and your family take your seat INSIDE A FULL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, you will be overwhelmed as you see, feel and hear the incredibly moving and captivating music of Franz Schubert--music that pulls you into a world of mystery and suspense, yet bold, expansive and unstoppable. Don't miss this unforgettable InsideOut Concerts® experience on Saturday, February 7 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in NYC.

Two events on Saturday, February 7:
2PM – Family Concert + Instrument Zoo
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-family-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369178131649

5PM – Full Immersive Concert + Post-Concert Reception
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sublime-schubert-the-full-insideout-concertsr-experience-tickets-1369197700179

Audience Comments:
“Incredible! Took my husband and three girls where we sat between the violins and flutes. When talking about our favorite things we did during our trip (the girls’ first) to NYC, this was at the top of everyone’s list. I’d never heard of anything like this and everyone who saw the videos I posted online thought it looked amazing too. I literally started crying the second the music began because I was so happy to be there. The instrument zoo afterwards was also fun for the kids!”
"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!"