We are very excited about our sixteenth season proudly serving Manassas and Prince William County as this area’s premier all-volunteer community-service symphony orchestra! Our diverse blend of local artists and great music, combined with our unique programs and family-friendly atmosphere, is certain to delight both our long-time patrons and our newest audience members.

Maestro Villani and the Symphony begin the season with Symphonic Elegance. In between Gioachino Rossini’s charming La Gazza Ladra Overture and Antonín Dvorák’s soaring Symphony No. 8 in G major, we are pleased to present a remarkable cellist, Heleen Du Plessis. Ms. Du Plessis is a well-known performer in her native South Africa and has appeared as a soloist and in ensembles worldwide.

The NMSO’s famed family concert in December, presented by NOVEC, is a rootin’ tootin’ roundup of music that would make some cowboys purty darn happy. Moo-sic of the Old West features our third annual world premiere of a work commissioned just for this concert and based on a fine children’s book. This year’s work, written by George Mason University composition professor Dr. Glenn Smith, is Cowgirl Rosie and Her Five Baby Bison. It is based on a book by British author Stephen Gulbis. We’ll also have some other surprises and holiday favorites.

As winter draws to a close in late February, we will present music composed or inspired by history’s most cherished composer. Mmmm Mozart! showcases some tasty morsels from Don Giovanni (including some variations composed by Beethoven), spotlights our concertmaster Emil Cheytanov and our principal violist (and Osbourn HS graduate) Natalie Kenworthy Short in the Sinfonia Concertante, and finishes with the glorious Jupiter Symphony.

Our season ends in May with a quick trip Around the World. The journey starts with Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to Rossini, Overture in the Italian Style. Next we go through the English countryside with Frank Bridge’s lovely Two Old English Songs and then across the Channel, where we meet George Gershwin and An American in Paris. We finish with the thrill of Piotr Tchaikowsky’s “Little Russian” Symphony No. 2.

We at the NMSO couldn’t be happier than when playing for you. See you at the concert!