Trumpeter Pacho Flores, left, who joined the Orchestra San Antonio for its concert debut in 2025, will return for a program honoring the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Siggi Ragnar
The Orchestra San Antonio is heading into a busy weekend performing for two very different audiences.
The second orchestral concert of their 2026-27 season, Saturday at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, will feature a program in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary. It includes works by composers Leonard Bernstein, Antonín Dvořák and Daniel Freiberg.
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The Orchestra San Antonio, the resident symphony at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, will perform a program honoring the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Siggi Ragnar
The Orchestra San Antonio, the resident symphony at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, will perform a program honoring the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Siggi Ragnar
Trumpeter Pacho Flores, who joined the Orchestra San Antonio for its concert debut in 2025, will return for a program honoring the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
Siggi Ragnar
“All of these pieces have been written in New York, so, in a way, it’s almost like a trip to New York City musically without having to leave your seats,” said Leonardo Pineda, the orchestra’s music director.
The day before, the orchestra will play an abbreviated version of the concert for school children, kicking off TOSA’s new annual youth concert series.
What: The Orchestra San Antonio will perform a program titled “American Harmony” celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding.
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: H-E-B Performance Hall, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle.
Details: $27-$100, tobincenter.org.
“We’re going to have students from all over Bexar County come and hang out for an hour,” said President and CEO Paul Montalvo, who co-founded the organization. “I think we’re expecting about 800 or something students, so it’s going to be great.”
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It is the latest addition to the classical music group’s ever-growing offerings.
The organization started in 2012 as the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, later changing it name to the Classical Music Institute and finally to the Orchestra San Antonio. It has been one of the resident companies of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts since the venue opened in 2014.
The group began providing music for Opera San Antonio and Ballet San Antonio as the CMI Orchestra after the San Antonio Symphony, which had served that function, folded in 2022.
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Related: San Antonio Philharmonic scraps remainder of season
Right now, TOSA is the city’s only source of live, professional orchestral music. The San Antonio Philharmonic, which sprang from the ashes of the symphony, scrapped the remainder of its 2025-’26 season. Philharmonic leaders have said they are working to schedule at least one spring concert, but nothing has been announced.
The Orchestra San Antonio started presenting its own orchestral concerts one year ago with a performance featuring trumpeter Pacho Flores. Flores is returning for this weekend’s performances, playing Freiberg’s “Crónicas Latinoamericanas.” And Freiberg will be there, too.
“The cool part is that it’s not just Pacho,” Pineda said. “There is a pianist in the center, there is a double bass, there is a drum set, and so it’s a jazz group in the middle of the orchestra. And then Daniel is going to be playing the piano. So the composer will be sitting there with us.”
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This weekend’s concerts fall mid-way through the orchestra’s concert season, which concludes June 6.
“We have a guest conductor who’s the music director of the Tucson Symphony, José Luis Gómez, who’s been here before,” Montalvo said. “But we have a larger orchestra now, so he’s going to be very surprised coming back at the transformation.”
That concert also will feature Cameron Renshaw, a 12-year-old cellist from Michigan who has been performing professionally as a soloist since he was 8.
“Every June we’re going to focus on having young artists be a part of the experience,” Montalvo said. “Last year we had an 9-year-old violinist who did just incredible work.”
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Chamber music remains in the mix as part of its programming, with concerts throughout the year as well as a 210 Festival every summer. The complete 2026-’27 season lineup will be announced during this year’s festival, which runs from June 10 to 20.
Education has been a huge part of the organization since the beginning. Musicians hired as artist faculty are expected to play as well as teach, Montalvo said, and they are expected to do both at a high level.
One of TOSA’s key education initiatives is Ascend, an after-school program that provides free music education to youngsters. It began at Stafford Elementary School and has expanded into Japhet Elementary School.
More: Ascend and Youth Orchestra San Antonio work to make classical music accessible to all
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“What we’re about is giving opportunity where there’s untapped potential,” Montalvo said. “That’s my credo for the rest of my life. It’s not about talent. It’s just about opportunity and whether you can tap that talent.
“We’ve had so much success with the Ascend program. People are knocking on our doors to have this program at their schools.”
TOSA’s orchestral performance offerings also will continue to expand over time.
“We’re slowly adding a concert to every season from here on out,” Montalvo said. “And then we’re also going to start doubling some of those programs, but they’ll be doubled outside of the Tobin. I don’t know where — we’re working on that.
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“But it’s also going to be a gesture that we’re going to do consistently. We’re not going with the expectation that you’ve got to come see us at the Tobin. We’re going to go to you, we’re going to keep on going to you and make sure that your community is experiencing what we have to offer on a consistent basis and not a token basis.”
The guiding idea for the organization’s growth is to make sure that what they are doing is sustainable. This weekend’s program, which features works that range in time from the 19th to the 21st century, also addresses sustainability in a broader sense, Pineda said.
“We want to show them this trip to New York and show them traces of American communities and of where it comes from, but ultimately, with the idea that the symphony orchestra or music itself has survived all of these different transitions in humanity,” he said. As we face AI, we are always faced with the question of whether the symphony orchestra or music will survive. And we have Freiberg, the composer, and we think it will survive because it’s human and and it brings people together.”
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