The Santa Rosa Symphony’s 2026–2027 season is its second at the Brannan Center, the converted Calistoga church that opened in October 2025. The chamber music series runs three programs across five performances: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons alongside Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires on November 6 and 7, Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals on January 31, 2027, and Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale on May 15 and 16, 2027. All of them play in Kozel Hall, the Center’s main performance space, which seats about 110.
Santa Rosa Symphony Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong said the idea is to repeat the pattern of a big, masterwork concert in the fall, a family concert in the winter, and an interactive musical experience with a theatrical element in the spring.
Pairing the two on one program doubles the impact, Lecce-Chong said. “This is because Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is a tribute to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Piazzolla’s work is a passionate, wild mirror of Vivaldi’s, told through tango.”
Lecce-Chong conducts and plays harpsichord. Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova is the guest soloist.
Last year, demand was strong enough that the Symphony added a second family concert, and three of the resulting five performances sold out.
“Throughout the year, we had a dialogue with Francesco to discuss program options. We decided that the structure of last year’s concert series worked very well. The Symphony concerts and other performances showed us that Kozel Hall is excellent for acoustic and lightly amplified music,” Brannan Center Executive Director Kyle Clausen said.
Clausen said the Center’s own audience has grown quickly since it opened.
“Since we opened in October 2025, we’ve welcomed over 8,000 guests through our doors. The Brannan Center is now more widely recognized as a performing arts space in Napa Valley. It’s been gratifying to hear people express appreciation for a resource like this in our community,” Clausen said.
Lecce-Chong said the Brannan Center puts the Symphony closer to its audience than either of its usual halls does. The Brannan Center has become a third venue for the orchestra, beyond its classical home at Sonoma State’s Green Music Center and the Luther Burbank Center, where it plays its Pops series.
“I like that at the Brannan Center, there is no divide between the musicians and the audience. That intimacy is the basis for Western classical music,” Lecce-Chong said.
Lecce-Chong said holding concerts at the Brannan Center helps rebuild the social bonds that were broken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Before 2020, Santa Rosa Symphony connected with audiences at wineries, community centers, and libraries. A lot of that work was lost due to COVID rules and curfews. Now the Brannan Center is bringing audiences from Napa and Sonoma counties and other parts of the Bay Area together. This is a positive way to create community, through a love of music,” Lecce-Chong said.
For more information, visit brannancenter.org.
