Thank you for a Wonderful Season!
- Joe Duffy
- Jul 28
- 5 min read
July 27, 2026
Thank You for a Wonderful Season!
And a look ahead to 2027
Before we begin looking ahead, I want to thank everyone who made our 2026 season possible—our musicians, volunteers, donors and community partners, and especially the audiences who filled the hall. The 2026 Season marked not only a Season of artistic achievement, but continued record audiences!
I also want to thank Jan Jack for her dedicated leadership as NCO’s President. In May, I was elected to succeed Jan, and I look forward to work with her and all of you as we begin NCO’s next chapter.
A concert may last only an afternoon, but the community surrounding it is built throughout the year. We are grateful that you are part of it!
A Moment to Remember: 2026 Season Finale
We thought you might enjoy hearing the orchestra once more. This performance of Fauré’s Requiem from our final concert of the 2026 Season, captures something we value deeply about orchestral music: its ability to create a shared experience that is difficult to express in words.
A new conversation about music—and community
The experience of music can begin long before a concert: when you discover why a composer wrote a piece, understand what the orchestra is trying to accomplish or recognize a musical idea when it returns in a different form.
Over the coming months, we are going to share more of that experience with you. We will explore the music in our 2027 season, introduce the people who make it possible and show what happens before the orchestra plays its first note. Some emails will teach. Others will take you behind the curtain or introduce someone in the NCO community. And when a concert is approaching, we will remind you directly that it is time to reserve your seat.
What could come next for NCO?
Over the past three years, NCO’s audience has grown significantly. More people are attending our concerts, returning each season and becoming part of the community surrounding the orchestra. As we look ahead, we would like to begin a conversation with you about where that growing community might take us next.
Great music and great concerts will always be NCO’s principal goal and highest priority. Everything else begins with the quality of the music we perform and the experience we create for our audience.
But could our shared commitment to music also reach further into the community?
Perhaps NCO could help more young people study music by supporting lesson scholarships for students from low- and middle-income families, as well as a merit-based competition that recognizes exceptional young musicians. Perhaps we could create more opportunities for adults to learn—through talks, listening programs or another “open orchestra,” where musicians of any skill level could experience what it is like to rehearse and play as part of an orchestra.
These are possibilities, not announced programs. Pursuing them would require financial support, volunteers and community partners. More importantly, it would require a sense that you—our audience, musicians, donors and friends—believe these efforts should be part of NCO’s future.
We would like to know what you think. Which of these ideas interests you most? What other possibilities should we be considering? I'll report back what I hear from you!
Our 2027 Season
The four concerts in Echoes of the Human Spirit explore places, emotions, stories and national identity. Each program has its own character, but each also asks what music can reveal about human experience.
Eternal Rome: Love, Memory & Empire
January 30
Our season begins with three very different musical journeys. In Capriccio Sinfonico, we hear the young Puccini before opera made him famous. Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, performed by International Chopin Competition 1st Prize Winner, Zach Cheong, places an intimate and lyrical piano voice against the scale of the orchestra. Respighi’s Pines of Rome concludes the program by transforming the orchestra into a portrait of the Eternal City.
How can an orchestra portray a city? Respighi gives us children at play, the shadow of a catacomb, a nightingale on the Janiculum Hill and an ancient army advancing along the Appian Way.
The Pines remain in the title, but the real subject is memory: the lives, ceremonies and histories that have unfolded beneath them. In a future Listener Guide, we will explore the sounds Respighi uses to make those scenes visible.
Romantic Spirits: Fate, Fear & Transcendence
February 20
The second concert enters the emotional world of German Romanticism. Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style begins with brightness and theatrical energy. Weber’s Der Freischütz Overture takes us into a darker world of forests, fate and the supernatural. Student violinist and Music Foundation of Greater Naples' Scholarship Competition Winner, Katherine Anderson, joins NCO for the first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto before Brahms’s Second Symphony brings the program to its expansive conclusion. This performance continues the NCO tradition of supporting young musical talent from our Community.
Why does Brahms’s Second feel so warm? The symphony is filled with flowing melodies, pastoral colors and some of Brahms’ most generous orchestral writing. Yet darker moments remain beneath the surface. That balance of sunlight and shadow gives the work much of its emotional depth—and will be the subject of a future Listener Guide.
Dreams, Fairy Tales & Faith
March 20
Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess opens a program shaped by memory, imagination and belief. Pianist Anthony Ratinov joins us to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. A recent graduate of Juilliard’s prestigious Artist Diploma program, Ratinov has won major prizes at the Montréal, Busoni and National Chopin competitions. Humperdinck then carries us into the dream world of Hänsel und Gretel, and Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony concludes the concert with a musical expression of faith.
The Piano Concerto in G shows Ravel’s orchestra at its most colorful. Jazz-inflected rhythms, brilliant percussion, exposed woodwind solos and a long, quietly unfolding slow movement inhabit the same piece. Later in the season, we will look more closely at how Ravel combines instruments to create colors that seem to change before our ears.
American Soul
April 17
Our final concert asks how American composers found their own orchestral voices. Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man uses brass and percussion to create a public ceremony. Risa Hokamura joins NCO for Barber’s Violin Concerto, followed by Barber’s concentrated Essay No. 2. Risa first gained international recognition by winning the Silver Medal at the 2018 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and, that same year, First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. We conclude the concert with Gershwin’s An American in Paris - a work that brings the season to an energetic close.
What makes music sound American? Gershwin mixes symphonic writing with jazz rhythm, popular melody, city noise and even Parisian taxi horns. Copland and Barber offer very different answers to the same question. Together, the three composers remind us that there has never been only one American musical voice.
Join us for the Season
Support NCO by purchasing a Gold ($1,000), Silver ($750), or Bronze ($500) Season Pass.
Gold, Silver and Bronze Season Passes include two seats to all four concerts, along with special recognition and opportunities to connect with the orchestra. More than a season pass, they offer a meaningful way to enjoy the music while providing additional support for NCO. A portion of your ticket price is eligible for a tax-deductible.
You may also purchase a single Season Pass only for $160.
Coming Next
How can an orchestra portray a city?
In our next email, we will enter Respighi’s Rome—from children playing beneath the pines of the Villa Borghese to an ancient army advancing along the Appian Way—and listen for how an orchestra can make a place visible through sound.
Naples Community Orchestra connects the community through the power of music.
Naples Community Orchestra, Inc.
PO Box 3542
Naples, FL 34101
(239) 944-7311
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