Upcoming Fall Concerts

Published September 18, 2026

Upcoming Fall Concerts

As temperatures drop and leaves turn, Reno Phil and Reno Chamber Orchestras’ 2026-2027 seasons shift into high gear. In the coming days there are several wonderful performances you will want to hear. Here is a snapshot:

Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty

September 19 (7:00 p.m.) & 20 (2:00 p.m.)
AVA Ballet Theatre
Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts

The Reno Phil continues its long-running relationship with AVA Ballet Theatre and provides a live orchestra for Tchaikovsky’s classic setting of the well-known fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. Maestro Laura Jackson will lead the Reno Phil from the Pioneer Center orchestra pit, while the talented dancers, prepared by Alexander Van Alstyne, bring the story to life onstage.

Jurassic Park: In Concert

September 30 (6:00 p.m.)
Reno Phil
Grand Sierra Resort’s Grand Theatre

Under a gigantic screen on the magnificent stage of the Grand Sierra Resort’s Grand Theatre, the Reno Phil performs the soundtrack to Steven Spielberg’s classic film, Jurassic Park. RPO principal pops conductor, Jason Altieri, leads the full orchestra in John Williams’ classic score. If you haven’t been to a performance like this, it really is a treat. The movie is played just like it normally would be, but the musical soundtrack has been stripped from it, and the Reno Phil will play the music live and perfectly in sync with the film. And if you love this experience, mark your calendars for May 15 & 16, 2027, when the Phil returns to the Grand Theatre to perform Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert. (For those of you old people like me, that’s the original Star Wars, and it will be a blast.)

Mostly Mozart

October 4 (2:00 p.m.)
Reno Chamber Orchestra
Nightingale Concert Hall

The Reno Chamber Orchestra (RCO) kicks off its 52^nd season with a concert featuring the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Led by music director Kelly Kuo, this performance in UNR’s Nightingale Hall begins with Simon Rivet’s Ocean of Quiet. This evocative work is the 2025 winner of the Kreitler Competition, an important commissioning project shared between the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle (NC). After the performance of this ocean-inspired work, local piano royalty take the stage. RCO principal keyboardist and University of Nevada professor emeritus James Winn is joined by Cicilia Yudha, who replaced Winn on the UNR music faculty when he retired last year, in a performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in E-Flat Major, K. 365. After intermission, the orchestra returns to play Mozart’s beloved, virtuosic, and tuneful Symphony No. 40 in G-Minor, K. 550.

Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto

October 17 (7:30 p.m.) & 18 (4:00 p.m.)
Reno Phil
Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts

The Phil kicks off its Classix season with an energetic opener, a beloved soloist, and gem by Beethoven. Juan Pablo Contreras’ Mariachitlán opens the proceedings. This exciting and propulsive work will get the season started with a flash. Maestro Laura Jackson will then lead the orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. Among Beethoven’s symphonies, No. 2 often gets short shrift. Beethoven is the crucial bridge between the symmetrical and balanced approach of the Classical era, and the emotionally forthcoming Romantic era. This work lies in cracks of these eras, bubbling inside of the restraints of the music that preceded it, but not quite the revolutionary explosion of his third symphony, which was just around the corner.

After intermission, Jackson and the Phil will be joined by soloist Jon Nakamatsu. Winner of the 1997 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, Nakamatsu has a deep relationship with our community and has performed several times with the Phil, including as a last-minute replacement for an artist who had to cancel last season. The piece he will be performing is Rachmaninoff’s legendarily fiendish Concerto No. 3. The 1996 Academy Award-winning film Shine focused on a real-life pianist, David Helfgott, as he strove to master this work. With his incredible virtuosity coupled with his beautiful pianistic touch and lyricism, Nakamatsu is the perfect pianist to present this piece.

Hopefully these opening concerts will whet your appetite for the rest of the season ahead. And as the headwinds of our world seem to blow at gale force these days, the Reno Phil and Reno Chamber Orchestra offer healing and restorative shelter from the storm. We hope you will come in from the elements and join us.

Scott Faulkner is principal bassist of the Reno Phil and the Reno Chamber Orchestra. He is faculty director of the League of American Orchestras’ Essentials of Orchestra Management program at Juilliard each July.