Photos from our Awesöme Ten Year Celebration in Oakland on Saturday, August 19, 2023

Photos from Session 92 on Friday, August 18, 2023 at The Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

Photographer Lakyn Crumbly.

Photos from Session 91 on Sunday, July 9 at The Ferry Building in SF.

Photographer Lakyn Crumbly

Photos from Session 89: Jurassic NightLife at Cal Academy on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

Photos from Session 88: Earth Day at Chabot Space & Science Center on Saturday, April 22, 2023. Photos by Lakyn Crumbly.

Thanks to our vibrant and supportive community, we had an Awesöme year filled with world premieres, record-breaking audience engagement, exciting new venues, and more minutes of music making than ever before!

Photos from the Requiem Sinfónica Concert on December 3, 2022 at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland. Photos by Nick Lea Bruno.

Photos from our End-of-Year Concert on October 23, 2022 at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Photos by Nick Lea Bruno.

Awesöme Orchestra is honored to be collaborating for the third time with both Dia Luna (arranged by Holly Mead) and Raze The Maze for new songs arranged for full orchestra. Guest vocalist Yvette Pylant will be back performing The BeeGees “How Deep is Your Love” in a beautiful new arrangement by PJ Morton and Brian Adam McCune.

Alongside our Artistic director Dave Möschler and Brian Adam McCune, we’re honored to to welcome back two local conductors who are part of the of Awesöme Orchestra Collective community — Sue Crum and Dr. Sixto F. Montesinos Jr. who will lead the orchestra through new pieces by Alexis Alrich, Joshua idio, and Dale Trumbore.

And of course the Awesöme Big Band is back showcasing thrilling new arrangements by Jereld Wing of Elgar’s Enigma Variations and excerpts from Kristofer Maddigan’s smash-hit video game soundtrack to Cuphead. We’ll close out the evening with the earth-shaking final movement of Respighi’s The Pines of Rome. You don’t want to miss this amazing line up!

Awesöme Orchestra is thrilled to have guest conductor Martha Stoddard join us on the podium to conduct “Jupiter” from The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst on Friday, June 3 for Session 81 at Chabot Space & Science Center! Martha, who also goes by Marty, played flute several times with us in the early days, has been a big supporter over the years, and is a fixture of the Bay Area music scene!

As we watch from afar Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine (shockingly in the year 2022) let's recall a time when similar invasions were common in the Western Hemisphere. For example, France invaded Mexico two times in the 19th-century around the same time Mexico lost half its territory to the United States (Mexican-American War)…

If you’re not able to attend our biggest event of the year in person (all advance in-person tickets are now SOLD OUT), we’re excited to announce that for the first time ever, we’ll also be livestreaming our End-Of-Year Concert — and it’s FREE! Hop over to our YouTube or Twitch channels this Sunday, December 12 at 7pm PST to watch the full show and connect with other AÖC community members from all over the world in the chat!

ON SALE NOW! Join us as we hop back into the concert hall for an unforgettable evening of celebration, genre-bending live music with full orchestra and fundraising! Get your tickets today for Awesöme Orchestra’s seventh annual End-of-Year Concert on Sunday, December 12 and come support your community as we gather together to make music again!

Come join Awesöme Orchestra for the first FULL ORCHESTRA session in over 20 months! On Saturday, October 16 We’ll be hosted by OMCA from 12-3pm in their newly remodeled outdoor garden performance space. Bring a picnic, or sign up to play with us and get ready for an afternoon of music including Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Marquez, songs from Dia Luna arranged for orchestra by Brian Adam McCune, “Sweet Thing” by Chaka Khan, and “That’s the Way of the World” by Earth, Wind & Fire…

Announcing Session 76 (for big band and wind ensemble) on Sunday, September 19 from 2-5pm at YMTC at Aquatic Park in Berkeley, and Session 77 in mid-October at OMCA!…

Our amazing collaborators - Music In Place - are proud to present their newest video production, Unknown Tomorrows featuring members of Awesöme Orchestra Collective today, Saturday, August 14 at 12pm PST on their YouTube channel.

This 30-minute musical documentary follows Oakland-based composer/performer ONIKHO and members of Awesöme Orchestra Collective as they collaborate on three new arrangements of ONIKHO's original compositions. Using interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of rehearsals and recording, the film shows you—from idea to execution—what it takes to bring these thrilling songs to life, and celebrates the joy of playing music together again after the "lost year" of the pandemic.

We’ve been waiting 17 months to say this: MARK YOUR CALENDARS for our next in-person Open Session and come make music with your community! Join us on Saturday, July 10 from 2-5pm at Sports Basement in Berkeley!…

What does an orchestra look like that is truly inclusive and accessible? And how does an anti-racist orchestra not just look, but sound?

Systemic racism and oppression have plagued our society for far too long, and the orchestra and concert halls are no exception. Awesöme Orchestra's vision has always been to create a new model for orchestras to represent, serve, and inspire our communities. Over the last few weeks, we've been thinking about what we can do better as a collective to serve and inspire our community here in the Bay Area and beyond.

Full disclosure. I love Jurassic Park. I don’t even have a concept of how many times I’ve watched this movie. This movie is perfect and a big part of WHY it’s perfect is John Williams’ amazing soundtrack. Ready to know more?
PIECE: “Jurassic Park” (Highlights)

COMPOSER: John Williams (Arranged by Calvin Custer)

DATE: 1993

ERA/GENRE: 20th Century / film score

GOOD FOR: Crying with joy and awe like a mature adult who loves dinosaurs; ethically ambiguous genetic lab background music; embracing John Williams as legitimate classical music…whatever that means.

On Sunday, December 2, 2018, Awesöme Orchestra Collective will premiere Pie Jesu from Arturo Rodriguez’s Requiem Sinfonica (Requiem Without Words) at The Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA. This will be the second movement premiered of a nine-movement work in progress by Bay Area composer Arturo Rodriguez dedicated to the thirty-six individuals who lost their lives in Oakland’s Ghost Ship fire on December 2, 2016. When the work is complete, there will be more than ninety minutes of music for full symphony orchestra, which Awesöme Orchestra Collective will premiere in its entirety in 2021.