2025-26 Masterworks Concert Series Announced

Shelly Berg – Credit Jenny Abreu

(Press Release) West Palm Beach, Fla. (June 18, 2025) – In what promises to be another stellar season, Palm Beach Symphony has announced the 2025-2026 Masterworks Concert Series led by Music Director Gerard Schwarz. The Symphony welcomes guest pianists Shelly Berg, Misha Dichter, Simon Trpčeski and Emanuel Ax, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and violinist Vadim Repin during the six-concert season from November 2025 through May 2026 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida.
 

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 “The theme of our season is passion, power and premiere. This will be reflected through the passionate works of composers Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Schumann and powerful pieces by Strauss, Shostakovich and Holst,” said Palm Beach Symphony CEO David McClymont. “We have an unforgettable season to look forward to that also includes the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Moravec’s Lullaby, generously commissioned for Palm Beach Symphony by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. Once again, this season, audiences will experience world-class artistry and orchestral grandeur.”
 
In addition to the Masterworks Series, Maestro Schwarz leads Palm Beach Symphony during the family concert, A TV Guide to the Orchestra, the fifth program in the Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series that introduces children to orchestral music and that will be made available as a resource for families to watch together. 
 
"I am very excited to begin my seventh season as Music Director of the Palm Beach Symphony," said Maestro Schwarz. "We'll continue to build on our tradition of presenting timeless masterpieces and American voices of the 20th and 21st centuries, which this season include Paul Moravec, Gabriela Lena Frank, Daniel Asia, Alan Hovhaness and, of course, George Gershwin — music that challenges and inspires us. There is no greater joy than making music with our remarkable orchestra and sharing it with our passionate, curious and dedicated audience. We look forward to welcoming you for a powerful new season."
 
Maestro Schwarz is recognized internationally for his moving performances, innovative programming and lifelong dedication to music education. In addition to Palm Beach Symphony, he is the Music Director of the All-Star Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival and The Frost Symphony Orchestra. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of the Mostly Mozart Festival. Maestro Schwarz is the Distinguished Professor of Music; Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
 
Maestro Schwarz’s discography of over 350 albums showcases his collaborations with the world’s greatest orchestras and he has commissioned and performed more than 300 world premieres. In more than five decades as a respected classical musician and conductor, Maestro Schwarz has received eight Emmy Awards, 14 GRAMMY® nominations, eight ASCAP Awards, and numerous Stereo Review and Ovation Awards. He holds the Ditson Conductor’s Award from Columbia University and was the first American named Conductor of the Year by Musical America. He has received numerous honorary doctorates, including from The Juilliard School, his alma mater. In 2002, ASCAP honored Maestro Schwarz with its Concert Music Award, and in 2003, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences gave him its first “IMPACT” lifetime achievement award. Maestro Schwarz’s memoir, Behind the Baton: An American Icon Talks Music, was published by Hal Leonard in 2017.
 
Classical subscription packages begin at $120 for the six-concert Masterworks Series performed at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts located at 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach. New memberships and subscriptions are available now. Mini-concert packages and individual tickets will go on sale on September 2. Tickets may be purchased online at PalmBeachSymphony.org, by phone at (561) 281-0145 and at the Palm Beach Symphony Box Office weekdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at 700 South Dixie Highway, Suite 100, West Palm Beach.
 
Dale A. McNulty Children’s Concert Series
A TV Guide to the Orchestra
Family Concert
Sunday, October 5 at 3 p.m. 
Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
In collaboration with Young Artists from the Goldner Conservatory at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre
 
Benjamin Britten: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34
Familiar classical works "as heard on TV"
 
Introduce students to the thrilling world of classical music in a fresh, interactive way! In this vibrant performance of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten, four young actors dramatize the journey through the orchestra—making each instrument come alive on stage. The experience continues with familiar classical favorites “as heard on TV” and engaging programmatic music. Interactive dialogue invites students to connect directly with the performers, turning the concert into a fun, educational adventure. This engaging production blends music, storytelling and audience participation to spark a lifelong love of the arts.
 
Masterworks Series
Dreyfoos Concert Hall, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts
701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
 
* Next to guest artist’s name indicates they will be conducting a masterclass during their engagement with Palm Beach Symphony.
 
Masterworks Series #1
Sunday, November 9 at 3 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
Shelly Berg, piano
 
George Gershwin: An American in Paris 
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue 
Alan Hovhaness: Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, Op. 128 
Ottorino Respighi: Pines of Rome, P. 141
 
A magnificent tribute to the genius of George Gershwin, chock-full of major musical talent and delivered in superb sound. – Colin Clarke, Fanfare of Berg’s album “Gershwin Reimagined: An American in London” with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
 
A bold leap in creating a hybrid mixture of seminal Gershwin that is fresh, inspiring and virtuosic. – Singer Michael Feinstein
 
Shelton “Shelly” Berg is a Steinway piano artist and five-time Grammy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and producer. His newest album Alegría, released in July 2024, was recorded with bassist Carlitos Del Puerto and Dafnis Prieto. Berg’s original song “At Last” was nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. Prior critically acclaimed albums include Gershwin Reimagined: An American in London, The Deep, The Nearness of You, Blackbird and The Will. Berg earned three Grammy nominations in the Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) category with jazz singer-lyricist Lorraine Feather and international superstar Gloria Estefan, and a fourth Grammy nomination as co-producer of Gloria Estefan: The Standards. He earned his fifth Grammy nomination as co-arranger of “I Loves You Porgy / There’s a Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from the 2018 album Rendezvous featuring jazz singers Clint Holmes and Dee Dee Bridgewater with the Count Basie Orchestra. 
 
Other recent projects include arranging, orchestrating and co-producing the Estefan Family Christmas album, and recording and/or performing with Tony Bennett, Steve Miller, Seal, Lizz Wright, Andra Day, Monica Mancini, Kari Kirkland, Carmen Bradford, Chris Botti, Renée Fleming and Arturo Sandoval. He is also artistic director of The Jazz Cruise, artistic advisor for the Jazz Roots series at the Adrienne Arsht Performing Arts Center in Miami-Dade County, and music director of The Barclay and Beyond Jazz Orchestra at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.
 
An award-winning educator with more than 40 years of leadership in higher education, Berg has served as Dean and Patricia L. Frost Professor of Music at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami since 2007 and announced he’ll be stepping down from that position in Spring 2026. He was previously the McCoy/Sample Professor of Jazz Studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California and a past president of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE). In 2003, he was honored as Educator of the Year by the Los Angeles Jazz Society and in 2002 received the IAJE Lawrence Berk Leadership Award. In 2000, the Los Angeles Times named him one of three “Educators for the Millennium.”
 
Masterworks Series #2
Tuesday, December 16 at 7:30 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
*Misha Dichter, piano (This will be one of the first stops during his 80th birthday tour.)
 
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: The Snow Maiden Suite 
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 
Gabriela Lena Frank: Elegía Andina “Andean Elegy”
Manuel de Falla: The Three Cornered Hat
 
The pianist commands a wide dynamic and emotional range, finds nuances as well as new insights in all the music he plays, and places his details carefully. Dichter’s tremendous authority at the keyboard is the result of a comprehensive technique combined with an astute musicality. – Los Angeles Times
 
As his name suggests (Dichter is German for poet), the pianist’s performance was poetry from beginning to end. Dichter was sensitive to balance but was not shy when the music called for lyrical strength or technical brilliance. – The Salt Lake Tribune
 
One of America’s most popular artists, Misha Dichter was born in Shanghai to parents who fled Poland at the outbreak of World War II. Dichter and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two and he began studying the piano at five. At 20, while enrolled at the famed Juilliard School in New York City, he won the silver medal at the 1966 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, which helped launch an enviable concert career. Shortly thereafter, on August 14, 1966, Dichter was the guest soloist in a Tanglewood performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a concert that was broadcast nationally on NBC and subsequently recorded for RCA. Two years later, he made his New York Philharmonic debut under the baton of Leonard Bernstein, collaborating on the same concerto. Appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, the principal London orchestras and every major American orchestra soon followed. Dichter’s discography is legendary, iconic and musically omnivorous, encompassing the major scores of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Gershwin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. 
 
In 2007, Dichter took a three-month hiatus from the concert stage to deal with the onset of Dupuytren’s Disease, a contracting of one or more fingers. After successful surgery and physical therapy, he returned to public performance and became a supporter of, and spokesperson for, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Dichter is also an accomplished writer, having contributed articles to many leading publications including The New York Times, and a talented sketch artist. In 2012, he released an e-book titled “A Pianist’s World in Drawings” of his music-related illustrations.
 
Fiercely dedicated to extending his artistic traditions to new generations of pianists, Dichter conducts widely attended masterclasses at major conservatories, universities and music festivals including Aspen, Curtis, Eastman, Harvard, Juilliard, Yale and Holland’s Conservatorium van Amsterdam. 
 
Masterworks Series #3
Tuesday, January 13 at 7:30 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
*Alisa Weilerstein, cello
 
Daniel Asia: Gateways 
Dmitry Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major, Op. 107 
Richard Strauss: An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64
 
Weilerstein is a throwback to an earlier age of classical performers: not content merely to serve as a vessel for the composer’s wishes, she inhabits a piece fully and turns it to her own ends. –The New York Times
 
Weilerstein’s cello is her ID. She doesn’t give the impression that making music involves will at all. She and the cello seem simply to be one and the same. – Los Angeles Times
 
One of the foremost cellists of our time, Alisa Weilerstein is known for her consummate artistry, emotional investment and rare interpretive depth. She was recognized with a MacArthur “genius grant” Fellowship in 2011. Today her career is truly global in scope, taking her to the most prestigious international venues for solo recitals, chamber concerts and concerto collaborations with preeminent conductors and orchestras worldwide. 
With her multi-season solo cello project, FRAGMENTS, Weilerstein aims to reimagine the concert experience. Comprising six programs, each an hour long, the series sees her weave together the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 newly commissioned works. Performed in a multisensory production directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, featuring responsive lighting and scenic elements, each program offers a fully immersive and visceral listening experience. 
Weilerstein is committed to expanding the cello repertoire by premiering concertos written for her by three leading contemporary composers: Joan Tower’s A New Day (2021), Matthias Pintscher’s un despertar (2017), and Pascal Dusapin’s Outscape (2016). During the 2024-2025 season, Weilerstein gave the world European premieres of a new concerto by Thomas Larcher with the commissioning New York Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony; premiered Richard Blackford’s new concerto with the commissioning Czech Philharmonic; and gave the world, Colombian and New York premieres of Gabriela Ortiz’s new concerto, a Los Angeles Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall co-commission, with Gustavo Dudamel and the orchestra at Disney Hall, Bogotá’s Teatro Mayor and Carnegie Hall.
 
Weilerstein has appeared with all the major orchestras of the United States, Europe and Asia. In 2009, she was one of four artists invited by Michelle Obama to participate in a widely celebrated and high-profile classical music event at the White House, featuring student workshops hosted by the First Lady and performances in front of an audience that included President Obama and the First Family. A month later, Weilerstein toured Venezuela as soloist with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra under Dudamel and has since made numerous return visits to teach and perform with the orchestra as part of its famed El Sistemamusic education program.
 
Born into a musical family in 1982, Weilerstein is the daughter of violinist Donald Weilerstein and pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and the sister of conductor Joshua Weilerstein. She discovered her love for the cello at just two and a half when she had chicken pox and her grandmother assembled a makeshift set of instruments from cereal boxes to entertain her. Although immediately drawn to the Rice Krispies box cello, Weilerstein soon grew frustrated that it didn’t produce any sound. After persuading her parents to buy her a real cello at the age of four, she developed a natural affinity for the instrument and gave her first public performance six months later. In 1995, at 13, she made her professional concert debut, playing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Cleveland Orchestra, and in March 1997 she made her first Carnegie Hall appearance with the New York Youth Symphony. A graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Weilerstein also holds a degree in history from Columbia University.
 
Weilerstein was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D) at nine years old, and is a staunch advocate for the T1D community, serving as a consultant for the biotechnology company eGenesis and as a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world leader in T1D research. She is married to Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare, with whom she has two young children.
 
Masterworks Series #4
Monday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
*Vadim Repin, violin
 
Paul Moravec: Miami Variations
Serge Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63
Paul Moravec: Lullaby (World Premiere Commissioned for Palm Beach Symphony by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter)
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 
 
Fierce emotion, impeccable technique, poetic and sensitive interpretation. – Hong Kong Phil
 
Vadim Repin was born in Siberia in 1971 and won all categories of the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition at the age of 11. By the age of 15, he made debuts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki and Carnegie Hall. At 17, he was the youngest ever winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since then, he has performed with the world's most prominent orchestras and conductors in all the major music venues. 
 
In 2010, Repin was awarded the highest French distinction, the Victoire d'Honneur and the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres for his services to music. He was appointed Honorary Professor of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in 2014 and at the Shanghai Conservatory in 2015. Music education plays an important role in Repin’s life. He has given masterclasses for young violinists at Mozarteum University Salzburg and been on the jury of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, Tchaikovsky Competition and Queen Elisabeth Competition.
 
Masterworks Series #5
Sunday, April 19 at 3 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
*Simon Trpčeski, piano
 
Igor Stravinsky: Scherzo Fantastique, Op. 3 
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 
Dmitry Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47 
 
The best thing to come out of Macedonia since Alexander the Great is pianist Simon Trpčeski... the pianist is pretty good at conquering audiences as well as scores, not only with his playing but also with an engaging manner that connects with his listeners. – The Seattle Times
 
Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski (pronounced terp-CHESS-kee) has established himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to have emerged in recent years, praised not only for his powerful virtuosity and deeply expressive approach, but also for his charismatic stage presence. Launched onto the international scene 20 years ago as a BBC New-Generation Artist, his fast-paced career has seen him collaborate with more than 100 orchestras on four continents with appearances on the most prestigious stages.
 
Trpčeski has recorded award-winning discography that includes Rachmaninoff’s complete works for piano and orchestra and Prokofiev’s piano concertos, as well as works by composers such as Poulenc, Debussy and Ravel. His latest solo album, Variations, was released in Spring 2022 and features works by Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart. It received CD of the Month in Fono Forum (Germany) and an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone (UK).
 
Born in 1979, Trpčeski is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje, where he studied with Boris Romanov. Committed to strengthening the cultural image of his native country, his chamber music project Makedonissimo weaves Macedonian folk music tradition with highly virtuosic, jazz influenced riffs and harmonies into one unique sound.
 
With the support of Macedonia’s leading cultural and arts organization KulturOp, Trpčeski regularly works with young musicians to help cultivate the talent of the country’s next generation of artists. In 2009, he received the Presidential Order of Merit for Macedonia and in 2011, he became the first-ever recipient of the “National Artist of Macedonia” title.
 
Masterworks Series #6
Sunday, May 17 at 3 p.m. 
Gerard Schwarz, Music Director
Emanuel Ax, piano
This concert is generously sponsored by Impresario Society member Suzanne Mott Dansby.
 
Ludwig Van Beethoven: Egmont: Overture, Op. 84
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-Flat Major, K. 482 
Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op. 32  
 
His greatness, his overwhelming authority as musician, technician and probing intellect emerges quickly as he plays. Within minutes, we are totally captured by his intensity and pianistic achievement. – Los Angeles Times
 
Mr. Ax … played with youthful brio, incisive rhythm, bountiful imagination, delicacy when called for and thundering power when the piano fought back. – The New York Times
 
Born to Polish parents in what is today Lviv, Ukraine, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy and made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series. He won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv in 1974, Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists in 1975 and Avery Fisher Prize in 1979.
 
Ax has been a Sony Classical exclusive recording artist since 1987 and following the success of the Brahms Trios with Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma, the trio launched an ambitious, multi-year project to record all the Beethoven Trios and Symphonies. He has received Grammy Awards for the second and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s piano sonatas and has also made a series of Grammy-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano. During the 2004-2005 season, Ax contributed to an International Emmy Award winning BBC documentary commemorating the Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2013, his recording Variations received the Echo Klassik Award for Solo Recording of the Year.
 
Ax is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary music doctorates from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University and Columbia University.
 
Symphony Sessions: Lunch & Learns will be held the Thursday preceding each concert from noon to 1:30 p.m. on November 6 (hosted by principal cellist Claudio Jaffé), December 11 (hosted by principal cellist Claudio Jaffé), January 8 (hosted by assistant conductor Yun Xuan Cao), February 26 (hosted by Maestro Schwarz), April 16 (hosted by assistant conductor Yun Xuan Cao) and May 14 (hosted by Maestro Schwarz). Individual tickets are $125 per lunch and learn or a subscription package is available for $600 for admission to all six.
 
Proud sponsors of Palm Beach Symphony include Cindy and Jerome Canty, Mrs. James N. Bay, Carol and Harold Baxter, C. Kenneth and Laura Baxter Foundation, Inc., JoAnne Berkow, Kathy Lee Bickham and John Bickham, Leslie Rogers Blum, Yvonne S. Boice Trust and Alfred Zucaro, Jeffrey and Tina Bolton, James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui / FINDLAY Galleries, Jerome J. Claeys, Thomas and Carol Bruce, CIBC Private Wealth, Amy and John Collins, The Colony Hotel, CORPGOV, Suzanne Mott Dansby, The David Minkin Foundation, Michelle DuBois and James Roiter, Jacqueline and Ray K. Farris, Mary and Will Demory, Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Foundation,  Willard H. Dow and Kelly Winter, Dr. Richard and Diane Farber, Bill and Kem Frick/The Frick Foundation, Inc., Edith Hall Friedheim/Eric Friedheim Foundation, Gerry Gibian and Marjorie Yashar, Paul and Sandra Goldner, Douglas and Jo Gressette, Irwin and Janet Gusman, Walter Harper, Thomas E. Harvey & Cathleen P. Black Foundation, Doris Hastings Foundation, Carol S. and Joseph Andrew Hays, John Herrick, Addison Hines Charitable Trust, George Hines, HSS Florida, IPO Edge, Charles and Ann Johnson/The C and A Johnson Family Foundation, Elaine Kay, Aban and Percy Kavasmaneck, Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation, The Kovner Foundation, Gary and Linda Lachman/The Lachman Family Foundation, Patricia Lambrecht/The Lambrecht Family Foundation, Lugano Diamonds, Donald C. McGraw Foundation, The Honorable Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, The McNulty Charitable Foundation, Tish Messinger, David Moscow, Palm Beach Design Masters, Patrick and Milly Park/Park Foundation, Nancy and Ellis J. Parker, III, PNC Private Bank, Lois Pope, Provident Jewelry, Ari Rifkin/The Len-Ari Foundation, Dr. Martha Rodriguez and Dr. Jesus Perez-Mendez, Annette Urso Rickel Foundation, Karen Hunt Rogers, The Honorable Ronald A. Rosenfeld, David Schafer, Seth Sprague Foundation, Robin B. Smith, Kimberly V. Strauss, Dodie and Manley Thaler and the Thaler/Howell Foundation, Don and Mary Thompson, Jerome and Carol Trautschold, Sieglinde Wikstrom/The Wikstrom Foundation, and The Ann Eden Woodward Foundation/James and Judy Woods.