Past Season Shows & Events
2025-2026 “Family” Concert Season
Click on any of the events below to learn more.
Backyard BBQ Bash
A Casual Fundraiser at the Home of Super-Supporter Bill Fricke.
Good Eats, Good Music, Good Fun!
7:30pm Sat, Oct 4, 2025
Sibelius’ radiant second symphony—a favorite of MSO founding Music Director Karl Miller—launches the season. And we recognize music education as Holy Family Conservatory turns 100, with a Mozart double piano concerto performed by Diana Shapiro and Stanislava Varshavski.
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We honor Holy Family Conservatory of Music’s 100-year anniversary with Mozart, featuring pianists Diana Shapiro and Stanislava Varshavski, two internationally regarded musicians we’re fortunate to have in our backyard because of the school. As Mozart is about family and teamwork, we recognize the vital community the Conservatory has built over the years. Saluting MSO’s first Music Director, Karl Miller, we begin a new tradition: Audience Choice. You vote for what we play! One of Maestro Miller’s favorite pieces was Jean Sibelius’ Second Symphony. The music is a “confession of the soul,” as deeply moving as it is brilliantly sounding.
3:00pm Sun, Dec 21, 2025
Esteemed former Music Director Maestro Wayne Wildman returns for a joyous performance of Bach and Handel concertos, perfectly suited to the season. The Capitol Civic Centre Community Chorale will share festive carols, old and new. Join us after the concert right in the Capitol’s Mertens Lounge for a festive gathering, catered by Courthouse Pub. Great food, warm company, and holiday spirit!
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Maestro Wildman, the MSO’s revered former Music Director, returns to perform music near and dear. Concertos by Bach and Handel offer sounds fitting to the season: celestial and full of thanks. The Capitol Civic Centre Community Chorale joins in the festive joy of singing new American carols by the legendary Alfred Burt and holiday favorites that inspire and make this tradition meaningful.
7:30pm Sat, Feb 14, 2026
Pianist Kelleen Strutz returns to play Gershwin’s heartfelt and innovative piano concerto and LHS alums Cassie Glaeser and Zachary Glaeser stir our Valentine’s Day passion with arias from Carmen and Turandot.
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George Gershwin’s heartfelt and playful piano concerto requires pianist Kelleen Strutz to return home to the Lakeshore. Gershwin’s ingenuity is only rivaled by his ability to write a good tune, and plenty of that is displayed in the capable hands of virtuoso Strutz. Love, despair, flirtation, and defiance are themes of great opera and stir our passions on this special day. The arias sung will be read as a collection from the greatest of all time—Carmen and Turandot—and sung by two Lincoln High graduates-turned-stars, soprano Cassie Glaeser and tenor Zach Glaeser.
7:30pm Sat, Apr 11, 2026
We toast our 75th year by starting a new nine-year cycle of Beethoven’s influential and superb symphonies. Native son, violinist Andrew Dunlap, returns to the Lakeshore to perform a dazzling concerto by Bruch. We kicked off the new Beethoven series at “Where Beethoven Meets Beer,” the release party for our PetSkull-created Kolsch-style ale, “Light the Dynamite.”
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Another native son returns home. Violinist Andrew Dunlap performs the daring, dazzling, uber-emotive Bruch violin concerto in g minor. The g stands for grandiose. MSO’s 75th season looks forward. We begin a new concert cycle! Over the next nine years, all of Beethoven’s symphonies will be performed. One of the greatest contributions to music, Beethoven’s symphonies have inspired centuries of art worldwide. Beethoven’s First is in the leadoff spot and will rivet you.
The MSO, led by Dylan Chmura-Moore, welcomes back some of the outstanding talent that the Lakeshore has raised, with music selected to honor where we’ve been and where we’re going.
DOWNLOAD THE 2025-2026 SEASON BROCHURE
read the 75th season press release
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Mark Barkley Miller
The Aschenbrenner Foundation of Lakeshore Community Foundation
Tom & Virginia Bare Charitable Fund
Season Leader
Roy & Darlene Geigel Foundation
Season Benefactor
Dave Wage & Sandra Murzyn
Season Benefactor
Friends of Anne McCracken, In Memory
Season Sponsor
Susan & Alex Murtaugh
Season Sponsor
Season Sponsor
Season Sponsor
Season Media Underwriter
Season Media Underwriter
Hospitality Sponsor
Concert Champion
In Memory of Herman Balaban
Concert Champion
Michael & Marilynn Dunlap
Concert Champion
Concert Champion
Gary and Ann Gold
Concert Champion
Paul “Biff” & Sheila Hansen Family
Concert Champion
Mark & Michelle Klaiber
Concert Champion
Christine Kornely, Independent cabi Stylist
Concert Champion
Jim & Barbee Lester
Concert Champion
Concert Champion
Concert Champion
John & Laurale Stern
Concert Champion