Diablo Symphony Orchestra

05/27/2026

Plan for a refreshing, inspiring, and uplifting season of music - visit diablosymphony.org for details and links to the Lesher Center for the Arts box office.

05/17/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our season finale performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, and for making the Diablo Symphony Orchestra’s 63rd season such a memorable one. 🎻✨

From longtime subscribers to first-time audience members, guest artists, donors, volunteers and musicians: thank you for supporting live orchestral music in our community all season long.

We’re already looking ahead to an exciting return this fall. Join us Oct. 25 as we open our next season with Jean Sibelius’ powerful and soaring Symphony No. 2.

Until then, enjoy these moments from Sunday’s concert. ❤️

05/17/2026

🎟 Don’t miss the Diablo Symphony Orchestra’s season finale this Sunday at the Lesher Center for the Arts!

Hear Shostakovich’s electrifying Symphony No. 5, Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” 🇺🇸 and the West Coast premiere of Daniel Pesca’s “Up North” piano concerto 🎹

🗓 Sunday, May 17 | 2 p.m.
📍 Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Buy tickets today 👉 diablosymphony.org


https://www.sfcv.org/events/diablo-symphony-orchestra/dso-season-finale-shostakovich-5

The Diablo Symphony concludes its 63rd season with a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 on Sunday, May 17 at 2:00 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts. The difficulties under which Shostakovich (by then under condemnation by Stalin’s regime) was working in 1937 permeate the de...

05/15/2026

Concertmaster Sara Usher playing a solo during rehearsals for Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, what she calls "a massive, dramatic tour tour de force for the orchestra."

By endurance alone, Usher says it's the hardest thing the Diablo Symphony Orchestra will perform this season.

"It's a pleasure to play it. It's a style that we're not so used to," she said, calling it "big, strong, angular, rigorous" music.

Shostakovich composed Symphony No. 5 in 1937 during one of the most dangerous periods of Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, after the composer had been publicly denounced by the regime and feared for his life. The symphony balances triumph and terror, grandeur and grief; music many listeners and historians have interpreted as both public compliance and private anguish.

Audiences "need to be extremely aware of the time that this was written, the struggle and the suffering of the people," Usher said. "It's pretty impressive just from that perspective."

Catch Shostakovich, alongside Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" and "Up North," a piano concerto the Diablo Symphony commissioned, at the orchestra's season finale, Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.

🎟 Tickets and information: diablosymphony.org

05/13/2026

Daniel Pesca’s piano concerto “Up North” is built from memory: childhood summers in northern Michigan, an old Victorian house filled with family history, hide-and-seek on the grounds, creaking attic floorboards and Romantic piano music drifting through the parlor.

On May 17, Pesca joins the Diablo Symphony Orchestra to perform the concerto himself in its West Coast premiere at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

The program also includes Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, conducted by Music Director Matilda Hofman.

🎟 Sunday, May 17 at 2 p.m.
📍 Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek

Tickets: DiabloSymphony.org

05/01/2026

Sharing a milestone: 5 year anniversary with the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce! And the May 17 finale to the DSO's 63rd season.

https://www.facebook.com/helen.duncan.785737/posts/pfbid02g56zfDhMYieapZzpQTPLUgPpNPx3ybY85CqAY4w3r6V7d7dDMAaT3YFVxvjG2TS4l

04/08/2026

Save the date - it will be a fabulous afternoon of music!

03/27/2026

🎹 Experience the brilliant power of a rising star.

Yen Liang Young Artist Competition winner Ellie Xuan performs the first movement of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Diablo Symphony Orchestra this Sunday at 2 p.m.

Join us for “Joy of the Symphony” at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

🎟️ Tickets: diablosymphony.org
📍 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek

03/27/2026

Only three days away: Benjamin Britten's brilliant tour through the symphony! Come meet instruments that excite, inspire, calm, heal, connect and bring joy! Sunday, March 29, 2:00 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts. Visit our website for details of an unforgettable musical afternoon: www.diablosymphony.org.

03/24/2026

Today, more than 700 Contra Costa County students are discovering the orchestra live at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

Helping lead the way is Dante Baldini, a junior at Interlochen Center for the Arts, narrating Benjamin Britten’s "Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra."

Through Britten’s iconic work, Dante introduces each section of the orchestra — bringing young audiences inside the music in real time.

Join us for the public performance this Sunday afternoon.

🎟️ Tickets: diablosymphony.org