![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/SJM-L-PIZARRO-COL-1002-01.jpg\")
Robert Massey, executive and artistic director for Symphony San Jose, addresses the crowd during the symphony’s spring fundraiser at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose on May 16, 2026. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\nSymphony San Jose opens its 25th anniversary season this weekend, celebrating a huge milestone since the orchestra\u2019s \u201crebirth\u201d following the demise of the old San Jose Symphony. But the symphony isn\u2019t just reflecting on its past this season \u2014 it\u2019s also taking a big step toward its future.<\/p>\n
This month, Symphony San Jose announced its inaugural class of Artistic Partners: conductors Nathan Aspinall and Tatsuya Shimono and pianist Jon Nakamatsu. They\u2019re all familiar with the orchestra and the majestic California Theatre: Aspinall will conduct two concerts this season, and Shimono will have the baton for January\u2019s \u201cPictures at an Exhibition,\u201d featuring Nakamatsu, who\u2019s made no fewer than 15 appearance with his hometown orchestra.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll work with Executive Artistic Director Robert Massey and the symphony board\u2019s Artistic Committee to shape the orchestra\u2019s programming and identity over the coming seasons.<\/p>\n
Robert Massey, executive and artistic director for Symphony San Jose, addresses the crowd during the symphony’s spring fundraiser at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose on May 16, 2026. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSymphony San Jose has always believed that great orchestras aren\u2019t built around a single name at the podium \u2014 they\u2019re built around relationships,\u201d said Massey, who has led the organization since 2022. \u201cNathan, Tatsuya, and Jon are three artists we already trust deeply, and this partnership lets us go further with them: shaping programs together, taking real artistic risks and building something with a distinct identity over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While this season marks a quarter-century for Symphony San Jose, the city\u2019s orchestral roots go back to 1877. The volunteer orchestra that became the San Jose Symphony thrived for more than a century but found itself burdened by debt as the 21st century dawned. It ceased operations in October 2001 and was dissolved by bankruptcy in December 2002.<\/p>\n
By that time, though, Ballet San Jose\u2019s Andrew Bales had stitched together the ballet\u2019s orchestra with displaced symphony musicians to create something new: Symphony San Jose Silicon Valley, which was shortened to Symphony Silicon Valley the following season and in 2021 was rebranded as Symphony San Jose. Bales retired the following season.<\/p>\n
The first of its four concerts that inaugural season was Nov. 22, 2002, and the program included Antonin Dvorak\u2019s \u201cNew World Symphony,\u201d which is being reprised for this season\u2019s opening concert, \u201cThe New World: America at 250,\u201d conducted by Ken-David Masur. The performances, 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, also will feature a suite from Aaron Copland\u2019s \u201cBilly the Kid\u201d and the Bay Area premiere of \u201cRhapsody on America\u201d by Jonathan Leshnoff, which Symphony San Jose co-commissioned and will feature Joyce Yang on piano.<\/p>\n
The rest of the season is filled with crowd pleasers, with conductor Peter Jaffe returning for the popular Symphonic Spooktacular Oct. 24-25; Merry Mozart (with Aspinall conducting) Dec. 5-6; two shows with New Ballet, including \u201cThe San Jose Nutcracker\u201d; and a film-and-concert of \u201cStar Wars: A New Hope\u201d on April 10-11, 2027. It all leads up to the \u201cOde to Joy\u201d finale June 5-6 showcasing Beethoven\u2019s Ninth Symphony. You can get the full rundown on the season at www.symphonysanjose.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n CULTURAL CONNECTION: The Little Italy Festival in San Jose on Sunday is once again showcasing Italian supercars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis, but this year there\u2019ll be some American classics on display, too, thanks to Goombah\u2019s Car Club. Once you\u2019ve had your fill of the cars, you can check out the festival\u2019s live entertainment, which includes Italian tenor Pasquale Esposito performing at 3:15 p.m.<\/p>\n As usual, there\u2019ll be plenty of food and wine tasting at the Little Italy Museum as well as lots of family-friendly crafts and other activities. This year\u2019s festival, which runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., is dedicated to Chris Bertucelli, co-owner of La Villa deli in Willow Glen, who died at age 47 in February. You can get more details on the festival at www.littleitalysj.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n ARTISTIC WEEKEND: Japanese artist Kensuke Takahashi painted an amazing mural on Empire Seven Studios<\/a>\u2018 building in Japantown for the 2025 San Jose Walls festival featuring Shinto deities in the form of a tiger, a monkey and birds. He is returning to San Jose for his first solo exhibition in Northern California. The show, \u201cYaoyorozu,\u201d opens Saturday with a 6 p.m. reception at Empire Seven, 525 N. Seventh St., and runs through Nov. 29.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget this week marks the return of the First Fridays art walk in downtown San Jose, centered around the galleries and other venues in the SoFA district. There are new exhibitions at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles, the ICA San Jose, Works\/San Jose and Chopsticks Alley, among others. You can get the full lineup at www.southfirstfridays.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Symphony San Jose opens its 25th anniversary season this weekend, celebrating a huge milestone since the orchestra\u2019s \u201crebirth\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[189160,5329,88,90,89,189159],"class_list":["post-482803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-jon-nakamatsu","tag-little-italy","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-symphony-san-jose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}