Dear Friends and Music-Lovers,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Alamo City Symphony Viva’s 2025-2026 season, the orchestra’s TENTH year of music-making! As the orchestra celebrates this important milestone of artistic growth, Viva will present SEVEN unique performances that are sure to inspire, excite, and uplift you!
This season’s symphonic series highlights the breadth and depth of the Classical and Mariachi traditions. Our season-opening October program, entitled “New B-ginnings”, presents works by "B" composers, including Trinity University faculty composer Dr. Brian Bondari's Aegean Thunder (a brooding and turbulent depiction of Greek mythology), Bach's Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin, featuring our newly appointed concertmaster Brendan Speltz alongside principal oboist Erin Webber, and Beethoven's charming, boisterous, and humor-filled First Symphony.
In November’s concert “Homage”, Viva will present three works dedicated to other composers, styles, and colleagues. Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin pays tribute to the French Baroque dance suite and memorializes his friends lost in World War I. Vaughan William's lush 1910 setting of the Thomas Tallis's simple phrygian theme will transport you back to the choral traditions of the 16th century. Finally it might surprise you to know that Tchaikovsky's favorite composer was....Mozart! Mozartiana, the final piece on the program, honors the elegance and charm of Tchaikovsky's predecessor.
February’s program (“Fantastical Tales”) is a special program for the orchestra, in that it marks Viva's very first set of education concerts students, our brand-new ARTS CONNECT STUDENT PERFORMANCE SERIES! In this program, we bring the magic of storytelling to the stage with Sibelius's Karelia Overture and Rimsky-Korsakov's epic tone poem Scheherazade.
In March, we are honored to partner once again with the nationally renowned Mariachi ensemble Campanas de America in what will be another thrilling collaboration at Our Lady of the Lake University.
And finally in late May, to top off this tenth season, the San Antonio Choral Society (led by Dr. Jennifer Seighman) joins us once again for another thrilling program (“Ritual and Rapture”) of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and the second suite from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. We open the program with a short work of my own, Exaudi (based on the opening lines of the traditional Requiem Mass liturgy) and are thrilled to welcome back Lydia Beasley Kneer as soprano soloist for the occasion.
As always, we anchor each season around two full ballet productions with our Alamo City Arts artistic partner, the Alamo City Dance Company. No season would be complete without our full production of Tchaikovsky's magical work, The Nutcracker, complete with live orchestra, stunning costumes, and exciting young onstage talent. And, in May, we look forward to a production of Mendelssohn's iconic ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
And finally, one more new offering this season: pre-concert lectures given by Dr. Mark Rogers, bassoonist, educator, and celebrated conductor of the award-winning Heart of Texas Concert Band! Be sure to attend these enlightening talks which will help deepen your concert experience and understanding of the music we perform!
Thanks to you, our devoted patrons, we continue to grow our audiences and artistic scope each concert season. Please click the "Tickets " tab below and the “Symphony Viva” tab at the top of the page to explore our season, productions, repertoire, and guest artists.
We look forward to seeing you for our first performance on October 19th and welcoming you to another fantastic season of energetic music-making, collaboration, thrilling soloists, and enduring musical memories!
Musically Yours,
Joseph T. Kneer
Music Director and Conductor
Alamo City Symphony Viva
It is my pleasure to welcome you to Alamo City Symphony Viva’s 2025-2026 season, the orchestra’s TENTH year of music-making! As the orchestra celebrates this important milestone of artistic growth, Viva will present SEVEN unique performances that are sure to inspire, excite, and uplift you!
This season’s symphonic series highlights the breadth and depth of the Classical and Mariachi traditions. Our season-opening October program, entitled “New B-ginnings”, presents works by "B" composers, including Trinity University faculty composer Dr. Brian Bondari's Aegean Thunder (a brooding and turbulent depiction of Greek mythology), Bach's Double Concerto for Oboe and Violin, featuring our newly appointed concertmaster Brendan Speltz alongside principal oboist Erin Webber, and Beethoven's charming, boisterous, and humor-filled First Symphony.
In November’s concert “Homage”, Viva will present three works dedicated to other composers, styles, and colleagues. Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin pays tribute to the French Baroque dance suite and memorializes his friends lost in World War I. Vaughan William's lush 1910 setting of the Thomas Tallis's simple phrygian theme will transport you back to the choral traditions of the 16th century. Finally it might surprise you to know that Tchaikovsky's favorite composer was....Mozart! Mozartiana, the final piece on the program, honors the elegance and charm of Tchaikovsky's predecessor.
February’s program (“Fantastical Tales”) is a special program for the orchestra, in that it marks Viva's very first set of education concerts students, our brand-new ARTS CONNECT STUDENT PERFORMANCE SERIES! In this program, we bring the magic of storytelling to the stage with Sibelius's Karelia Overture and Rimsky-Korsakov's epic tone poem Scheherazade.
In March, we are honored to partner once again with the nationally renowned Mariachi ensemble Campanas de America in what will be another thrilling collaboration at Our Lady of the Lake University.
And finally in late May, to top off this tenth season, the San Antonio Choral Society (led by Dr. Jennifer Seighman) joins us once again for another thrilling program (“Ritual and Rapture”) of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and the second suite from Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. We open the program with a short work of my own, Exaudi (based on the opening lines of the traditional Requiem Mass liturgy) and are thrilled to welcome back Lydia Beasley Kneer as soprano soloist for the occasion.
As always, we anchor each season around two full ballet productions with our Alamo City Arts artistic partner, the Alamo City Dance Company. No season would be complete without our full production of Tchaikovsky's magical work, The Nutcracker, complete with live orchestra, stunning costumes, and exciting young onstage talent. And, in May, we look forward to a production of Mendelssohn's iconic ballet, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
And finally, one more new offering this season: pre-concert lectures given by Dr. Mark Rogers, bassoonist, educator, and celebrated conductor of the award-winning Heart of Texas Concert Band! Be sure to attend these enlightening talks which will help deepen your concert experience and understanding of the music we perform!
Thanks to you, our devoted patrons, we continue to grow our audiences and artistic scope each concert season. Please click the "Tickets " tab below and the “Symphony Viva” tab at the top of the page to explore our season, productions, repertoire, and guest artists.
We look forward to seeing you for our first performance on October 19th and welcoming you to another fantastic season of energetic music-making, collaboration, thrilling soloists, and enduring musical memories!
Musically Yours,
Joseph T. Kneer
Music Director and Conductor
Alamo City Symphony Viva
