Aubree Oliverson, photo by Nick Bayless
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Audience favorite Aubree Oliverson returns to open the Princeton Symphony Orchestra's 2025-26 Season at concerts the weekend of October 25-26. She will perform Antonín Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53. Also on the program are Dobrinka Tabakova's Orpheus' Comet and Arnold Schoenberg's 1937 orchestration of Johannes Brahms' Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25.
The Saturday performance begins at 7:30pm, an earlier start time for this season, and Sunday’s 4pm performance includes a 3:00pm pre-concert talk. Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov conducts both performances and hosts Sunday’s talk with Ms. Oliverson at Richardson Auditorium, on the campus of Richardson Auditorium.
Maestro Milanov says, “I’m pleased to be bringing Aubree back to open our season as the audience immediately connected with her at our opening concert last year. It’s thrilling to feel such a palpable electricity in the concert hall between artist, orchestra, and our patrons. It can only be experienced live.”
Aubree Oliverson is proving to be one of most compelling artists of her generation. Her 2025-26 season features debut performances with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Florida Orchestra, as well as return engagements with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Symphony Orchestra. Past and recent performances include season openings at the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, and Ridgefield Symphony. Among her prizes and awards are the Special Prize of Merit for violin at Verbier Festival Academy, a National YoungArts Foundation award, United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and the 2023 Francis Rosen Prize at the Colburn Conservatory. She plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin with a Jean “Grand” Adam bow.
Dvořák’s Violin Concerto is a significant work in the violin repertoire, including demanding virtuosic passages with Czech folk character and a spirited finale. Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova’s energizing Orpheus' Comet draws sound inspiration from the bees, which are mentioned in Virgil’s version of the Orpheus legend.
Maestro Milanov has programmed Arnold Schoenberg’s lush orchestration of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1, which will be also performed as a string quartet on the PSO’s Chamber Series at Trinity in the same week. Audience members attending both the chamber concert and one of the weekend’s performances will have the unique opportunity to compare both versions.
Later in 2025-26, exciting pianists Maxim Lando and 2025 GRAMMY® winner Michelle Cann, noted harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and Serbian-French cellist Maja Bogdanović will each be appearing with the PSO for the first time at Richardson Auditorium, and violinist Bella Hristova marks her return to the PSO stage this season. Additional highlights include the world premiere of a new work for harpsichord and small orchestra by Princeton-based composer Julian Grant, the New Jersey premiere of Ciprés, a Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Commission by Andreia Pinto Correia, and compositions by Jessie Montgomery and Viet Cuong. Among masterworks to be presented are symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn, Dmitri Shostakovich, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Sergei Prokofiev, and the complete version of Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Aubry Ballarò, soprano, Nicholas Nestorak, tenor, and Hunter Enoch, bass.
Review the PSO’s performance calendar online at princetonsymphony.org/calendar with links to individual event pages.
Single tickets start at $40; there are also cost-saving full subscriptions (save up to 25%) and Pick 3+ ticket packages available. Concerts take place on Saturdays at 7:30pm (new start time) and Sundays at 4:00pm. Full Season subscriptions start at $192. Youths 5-17 receive a 50% discount with an adult purchase. To subscribe, visit the Princeton Symphony Orchestra website at princetonsymphony.org or call 609-497-0020.
Accessibility: The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is committed to ensuring all programming is accessible for everyone, working with venues such as Richardson Auditorium to provide needed services. Contact Mika Godbole for questions about available services at [email protected] or (609) 905-0931. Note: some services require at least two weeks’ notice to arrange.
Programs, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is a cultural centerpiece of the Princeton community and one of New Jersey’s finest music organizations, a position established through performances of beloved masterworks, innovative music by living composers, and an extensive network of educational programs offered to area students free of charge. Led by Edward T. Cone Music Director Rossen Milanov, the PSO presents orchestral, pops, and chamber music programs of the highest artistic quality, supported by lectures and related events that supplement the concert experience.
Its flagship summer program the Princeton Festival brings an array of performing arts and artists to Princeton during multiple weeks in June. Through PSO BRAVO!, the orchestra produces wide-reaching and impactful education programs in partnership with local schools and arts organizations that culminate in students attending a live orchestral performance. The only independent, professional orchestra to make its home in Princeton, the PSO performs at historic Richardson Auditorium on the campus of Princeton University.
The PSO receives considerable support from the Princeton community and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, regularly garnering NJSCA’s highest honor. Recognition of engaging residencies and concerts has come from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the PSO’s commitment to new music has been acknowledged with an ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and a Copland Fund Award.
