The Coronado Philharmonia, under the direction of Ozvaldo Mendoza, is celebrating its fifth year. When asked how the orchestra would be celebrating, Mendoza said, “I think that making it special is to continue with the work that we started from the very beginning, which is providing the best performances in classical music and art music to Coronado and communities around it. …but I think that the most joyful thing is to continue the vision of CPO, which is to provide the best performances for the community and also to bring families, to bring new audiences, and to bring the youth as well (to hear good music).

When Mendoza reminisces about the concerts in the last five years, he recalls, “The most joyful thing that I have experienced is to see people smiling … to get those audiences to come back. I think that’s a huge thing for us. Then when we do a concert with kids, and they’re singing, and it’s the 1st time they hear the music with the live orchestra, just to see their eyes. It’s just amazing. That part that says, ‘Wow, this is incredible!’”

He mentioned the concert that included the bagpipes. “That was the 1st time that I had encountered a group of bagpipes playing next to my ear. It’s crazy. That was the 1st experience I had. I had heard it before, but not as a group, and that was an eye-opener. Those things are loud!”

Besides highlighting his exceptional musicians in the CPO, Mendoza tries to vary his program each time. “All the concerts that we have done, you know, they have something very special, from the Mariachi to the Spanish to the movie night… It’s just a joy to create music in a place where they respect and enjoy it as well. So they support us.”

The first concert of the season, on October 24th, “Concertos and Symphonies,” will celebrate the exceptional talent of young Southern California musicians at Coronado Performing Arts Center. The special artists are the winners of the Youth Concerto Competition.

Mendoza said, “Now in its fifth year, the orchestra’s Youth Concerto Competition provides young musicians ages 7–18 from Coronado and San Diego County the opportunity to perform as soloists with a professional-level orchestra. The 2026 competition winners will take the stage as featured soloists, performing works by Mozart, Hummel and Saint-Saëns.”

This year, three winners were honored. Orin O’Neal, 12, began playing trumpet at age seven and quickly discovered a passion for both classical and jazz music. He performs with the San Diego Youth Symphony, Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, and Jacobs Big Band, and was selected for the 2026 YOLA National Festival. Maya Brisard, 14, is a violinist from Solana Beach and a member of the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra since 2017. She has served as concertmaster of three ensembles and earned top prizes in national and international competitions, including American Protégé. Jun Kim, 17, is a clarinetist from San Diego and a senior at Canyon Crest Academy. He performs with the San Diego Youth Symphony and has attended Music Academy of the West, NYO2, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He was featured as a From the Top Fellow on NPR. The evening’s program will also feature Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro Overture” and “Clarinet Concerto,” Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony,” and Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1.”

The Christmas concert will be at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church with two back-to-back concerts to accommodate a larger audience. He said, “We’re going to have, actually, our own CPO choral or ensemble. Basically, we will hire professional singers and then develop a choir among those. It’s going to be a small ensemble, but very powerful. We’re actually playing the Messiah. It’s not going to be the whole Messiah, but it’s the one that is concentrated on the birth of Christ. And so that’s the idea because there are 2 parts of it.”

Coronado Philharmonia Orchestra concerts usually sell out, so purchase your tickets from their website: https://www.coronadophilharmonia.org.

VOL. 116, NO. 41 – Oct. 14, 2026