PB Symphony Sets Season's Concluding Concert

(Press Release) West Palm Beach, Fla. (May 6, 2025) – Led by Palm Beach Symphony Music Director and Conductor Gerard Schwarz, “The Encore” concert will conclude the Symphony’s 2024-2025 Masterworks Series on Monday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. 

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In an exciting finish to the season, the Symphony will share the Dreyfoos Concert Hallstage side-by-side with approximately 110 middle and high school students, undergraduate and graduate students, music teachers and community members representing the following public and private schools, colleges, universities, conservatories and orchestras: American Heritage School Palm Beach, BAK Middle School of the Arts, Boca Raton Community High School, The Conservatory School of North Palm Beach, A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, William T. Dwyer High School, A.D. Henderson University School & FAU High School, Gulliver Preparatory, Jupiter High School, The King’s Academy, Lake Worth Community High School, John I. Leonard High School, Logger’s Run Community Middle School, New World School of the Arts, North Broward Preparatory School, Palm Beach Central High School, Palm Beach Lakes High School, Park Vista Community High School, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Carnegie Mellon University, Edgewood College, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Stetson University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of Miami, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Alhambra Orchestra, Camerata di Magdalena, Century Village Orchestra, Florida Youth Orchestra, Broward Pops Orchestra, Indian River State College Wind Ensemble, Miami Lyric Opera Orchestra, North Palm Youth Symphony, Orchestra Del Ray, Orchid City Brass Band, Palm Beach Atlantic Symphonic Band, Palm Beach Gardens Concert Band, Palm Beach State Concert Band, Port St. Lucie Community Band, Sabor Latino (Latin Jazz), South Florida Chamber Orchestra, Sunrise Pops Orchestra, Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches, Symphony of the Americas, Treasure Coast Youth Symphony, World Doctors Orchestra and Youth Orchestra of Palm Beach County.

Among those participating are five of Palm Beach Symphony’s Lisa Bruna B-Major Award winners—2025 winners Thomas “Aidan” Gardner, flute, who will have graduated from the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts earlier in the day of the Community Side-by-Side performance, and Alexander Rodriguez, euphonium, will have graduated from Palm Beach Central High School three days prior. In total, eight graduating high school seniors will be playing in this side-by-side. Additional Lisa Bruna B-Major Award winners include 2024 winner Arturo Dekle, French horn, now a student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts; 2023 winner Bobbi Zimmelman, clarinet, now a student at Carnegie Mellon University; and 2022 winner Dion Sellitti, baritone saxophone who will play clarinet, now a student at Florida Atlantic University. All are currently or will be pursuing undergraduate music degrees.  

“We are so excited about this concert that unites our community in a grand celebration of 
orchestral music,” said Palm Beach Symphony CEO David McClymont. “This performance truly brings to life our mission to engage, educate and entertain the greater community. We encourage everyone to support our local musicians and at the same time enjoy a truly unique performance.”  

These intermediate and advanced level instrumentalists have the unique opportunity to play side-by-side with the Symphony’s professional musicians performing Johannes Brahms’ boisterous Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80, which celebrates the youthful pursuits of students over their academic duties. This overture, written in 1880, pays homage to University of Breslau, now called University of Wrocław, which awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.

Prior to the concert, guests will enjoy visiting with community organizations including Ballet Palm Beach, Benzaiten Center for Creative Arts, Cox Science Center and Aquarium, Norton Museum of Art, Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Palm Beach Dramaworks and West Palm Beach Library Foundation that will be set up in the Kravis Center lobby to share information about how to engage with their programs.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Park Foundation, Patrick and Milly Park, “The Encore” will also feature pianistKevin Kenner who will celebrate his 62nd birthday with a performance of Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21. 

“We’re grateful to Patrick Park for enabling us to do this seventh concert with his close friend Kevin Kenner, a remarkable pianist especially known for playing Chopin,” said Maestro Schwarz. “It’s a difficult piece to conduct because the soloist plays with great freedom, and you must find your way. The music is so beautiful and glorious. I’m very much looking forward to the challenge.”

Proclaimed by The Washington Post as "a major talent … an artist whose intellect, imagination and pianism speak powerfully and eloquently," Kenner was the top prize winner in the 1990 Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was awarded top prizes in the Tchaikovsky Competition and the Terrance Judd Competition, among others. He has performed as a soloist with world-class orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Brussels, the NHK Symphony of Japan and in the U.S. with the principal orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New Jersey, Rochester, Baltimore, St. Paul and many others. A distinguished recording artist, he has had his interpretations of works by Paderewski and Chopin picked as recordings of the month by Gramophone magazine. After teaching for more than a decade at London’s Royal College of Music, Kenner accepted a post at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where he is also artistic director and founder of the Frost Chopin Academy, an annual summer academy that directly connects talented students of Chopin’s music with some of the world’s most respected Chopin specialists.

The evening will culminate with Ludwig van Beethoven’s landmark Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67, written in 1808. There are few pieces of music easily recognized by the first few notes, but this symphony is one of those select few when it opens with the famous “bum, bum, bum, bum.”

“From that little four-note motif, Beethoven makes a mountain. It’s incredible what he does,” commented Maestro Schwarz. “This is one of the greatest masterpieces of all time. I can never conduct it enough.”

Additional information about “The Encore” community concert is available at PalmBeachSymphony.org. Ranging in price from $25 to $95, 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.

The Symphony will also present an informal and informative Lunch and Learn on Thursday, May 15 from noon to 1:30 p.m., hosted by Maestro Schwarz in the Symphony's conference room located in the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties building, 700 S. Dixie Hwy. in West Palm Beach. Guests will enjoy a three-course gourmet lunch catered by SandyJames Fine Food & Productions and a selection of wines curated by Palm Beach Symphony sponsor Private Cask Imports while deepening their connection with the musicians and performances through a glimpse behind the curtain of how the Symphony prepares for concerts, selects repertoire and more. They will learn about the subject matter and composers that will be performed during the upcoming concert, while enriching their concert experience. Tickets are $125 and complimentary valet parking is provided.

The 2025-2026 Masterworks Series Season will open with a matinee concert on Sunday, November 9 at 3 p.m. at the Kravis Center. The complete season will be announced soon.

Palm Beach Symphony’s education programs are made possible through support from The Paul and Sandra Goldner Conservatory of Music, Jacqueline and Ray K. Farris, The McNulty Charitable Foundation, James R. Borynack and Adolfo Zaralegui/Findlay Galleries, Herbert H. and Barbara C. Dow Foundation, Mr. William Robertson, Charles Frederick Schmidt, The Annette Urso Rickel Foundation, Edith Hall Friedheim/Eric Friedheim Foundation, PNC Foundation, The Walter & Adi Blum Foundation, Inc., James H. and Marta T. Batmasian Family Foundation Inc., Harry T. Mangurian, Jr. Foundation Inc., Komansky Foundation, Josephine DuPont Bayard, Al Zucaro, Yvonne S. Boice Trust and Lois Pope, with additional funding from Cultural Council for Palm Beach County Arts and Cultural Education Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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.