Throughlines: ONN’s 25-26 Concert Season

THROUGHLINES: Composers in Conversation Across Time 

Orchestra Nova Northwest’s 2025-2026 Season subscriptions are now available! 

Click HERE to purchase. 

What threads tie a newly commissioned work in the 21st century to a Haydn symphony? How do stories from centuries past continue to resonate—and shape us—today? Orchestra Nova Northwest (ONN), Oregon’s progressive orchestra, invites audiences to explore these questions in its 2025–26 season, Throughlines: Composers in Conversation Across Time. 

With concerts in Beaverton & East Multnomah County, this season underscores ONN’s visionary approach to the future of classical music — reimagining how concerts are curated, how music resonates in today’s world, and how tradition can evolve. Each program draws intentional connections between the present and the past, pairing works by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Dvořák with 21st-century voices like Caroline Shaw, Anna Clyne, Carlos Simon, and Giancarlo D’Addona Castro. Guest artists include acclaimed pianists Maria Garcia, Artina McCain, and Sara Davis Buechner. Audiences will also experience dynamic storytelling in Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: Dream of America and the world premiere of a new flute concerto written for ONN Principal Flute Adam Eccleston.

Information on pricing and links for purchase below. Need help? Call us at 503-234-4077 or email our Patron Services Manager, Teague Shattuck at teagues@novanw.org. 

Please note, if you purchase a Sunday subscription for The Reser, The Reser Box Office will email your tickets separately, two weeks ahead of each concert throughout the season. 

New for 2025–26: 

• All Gresham concerts will take place at Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC). 

• Gresham ticket prices have been reduced to $25 for all seats! (previously $35–$60). Reser ticket prices remain the same as in the 2024–25 season. 

Subscribers help ensure ONN continues to inspire, while enjoying a host of great benefits! 

• The biggest savings- the earlier you buy, the lower your price. 

• Extra perks only available to subscribers: insider rehearsals, advance ticketing to The Spectacular, etc.  

•  A special 15% discount on additional tickets. 

• Dedicated customer service, including free and easy exchanges. (Exchanges between Saturday/Gresham concerts and Sunday/Beaverton concerts are no longer available.) 

• Contribute to the continued success and growth of Orchestra Nova Northwest! 

Subscriptions Packages

• Premium Package (15% off) Purchase HERE 
  • Access to Premium Seating at a discounted rate (top-tier seating
    • Select preferred seats before single tickets go on sale. Invitation to premium events including rehearsals, advance ticketing to the Spectacular, etc.
• Standard Package (10% off) Purchase HERE 
  • Access to Standard Seating at a discounted rate (second-tier seating)

*not including ticketing fees 

2025-2026 PROGRAMMING

LINEAGE: Sound and Fury

ONN launches the season with an exciting and creative program that offers a compelling exploration of musical wit, theatricality, and transformation across time. Portland Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte, inspired by the elegant surprises of Haydn’s string quartets, juxtaposes classical refinement with unexpected turns. Anna Clyne’s Sound and Fury, inspired by Haydn’s Symphony No. 60 and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is imbued with visceral energy and literary allusions that echoes both Shakespearean drama and Haydnesque contrast. At the center of the program stands Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto, a masterful fusion of humor and invention, originally composed for the stage. Together, these works offer a striking balance of reflection, wit, and intensity and form a rich dialogue between past and present, revealing how composers continue to reinvent the concert experience with imagination and daring.

Program:

CAROLINE SHAW                        Entr’acte {a minuet & trio}

JOSEPH HAYDN                           Symphony No. 60, Il Distratto

ANNA CLYNE                                Sound and Fury

Sat. September 27, 2025, 7:30 p.m. | Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham

Sun. September 28, 2025, 3:00 p.m. | The Reser, Beaverton

INNER LANDSCAPES: Depths of Expression

Maria Garcia, Soloist, Piano

A program that invites you on a journey through a vibrant musical landscape, blending the bold and contemporary with the timeless and profound. This exciting program presents the Western U.S. premiere of a new composition titled Rainn by Karena Ingram, a rising star in contemporary composition. Her evocative work explores the fluidity of nature and emotion and is presented in collaboration with the League of American Orchestras’ Toulmin Commissions Program. Portland piano virtuoso Maria Garcia performs the dramatic elegance of Lūcija Garūta’s Piano Concerto in F-sharp Minor — a hidden gem of the 20th-century repertoire, brimming with intensity, lyricism, and dazzling virtuosity. The program closes with the radiance of Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major, a celebration of nature and folk-inspired melodies, bursting with joy and optimism.

Program:

KARENA INGRAM                Rainn (Western U.S. Premiere)

LŪCIJA GARŪTA                   Piano Concerto in F-sharp Minor

ANTONIN DVORAK             Symphony No. 8 in G Major

Sat. November 15, 2025, 7:30 p.m. | Mt. Hood Community College, Gresham

Sun. November 16, 2025, 3:00 p.m. | The Reser, Beaverton

ELLIS ISLAND: Dream of America

Artina McCain, Soloist, Piano

This extraordinary program presents a work of the powerful, contemporary voice of composer Carlos Simon, whose works resonate with history, hope, and heart. Pianist Artina McCain returns to perform George Gershwin’s brilliant Piano Concerto in F, a work that blends classical traditions with the bold rhythms of jazz and pulses with energy, romance, and the unmistakable spirit of the American Jazz Age. The program closes with Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: Dream of America, a poignant and inspiring tribute to the immigrants who shaped the American story. Innovative in its format, the work brings elements of the theater and multimedia into the concert hall, employing actors and projected historical images from the Ellis Island archives. The spoken texts for the work come from the Ellis Island Oral History Project, an historic collection of interviews with actual immigrants about their experiences emigrating to America. This dynamic work reminds us of the hopes, struggles, and dreams that built a nation. 

Program:

CARLOS SIMON                              Hellfighter’s Blues

GEORGE GERSHWIN                    Piano Concerto in F

PETER BOYER                                 Ellis Island: Dream of America

Sat. March 14, 2026, 7:30 p.m. | Mount Hood Community College, Gresham

Sun. March 15, 2026, 3:00 p.m. | The Reser, Beaverton

BY NATURE: Resilience and Triumph

Sara Davis Buechner,  Soloist, Piano

ONN presents a program that honors the powerful legacy of LGBTQ+ composers whose voices have shaped the classical music canon. Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety, a symphony in name and a piano concerto in spirit, traces a soul’s search for meaning in a fractured world. Inspired by W.H. Auden’s Pulitzer prize-winning poem, the music journeys through introspection, disillusionment, and, ultimately, hope — with the solo piano as its restless, poetic voice. ONN welcomes the return of dazzling piano soloist Sara Davis Buechner in her fourth appearance with ONN. The orchestra is featured in the powerful Symphony No. 5 in E Minor of Piotr Tchaikovsky, a deeply emotional journey that weaves darkness and hope, struggle and triumph. Often interpreted as a reflection of Tchaikovsky’s inner turmoil and longing, the symphony builds to a triumphant finale — a powerful reminder of resilience through art. ONN celebrates these two remarkable composers, acknowledging their courage in living authentically in times when their identities were often marginalized.  

Program:

LEONARD BERNSTEIN                Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, The Age of Anxiety 

PIOTR TCHAIKOVSKY                   Symphony No. 5

Sat. May 16, 2026, 7:30 p.m. | Mount Hood Community College, Gresham

Sun. May 17, 2026, 3:00 p.m. | The Reser, Beaverton

All programs and artists subject to change without notice.