The U of M Symphony Orchestra (UMSO) is joining forces with the Winnipeg Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO) for Academic Festival, UMSO’s first concert of the 2026-27 season.
On the evening of Oct. 9, the audience will hear classical symphonic works by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Mikhail Glinka, performed by either orchestra at the Desautels Concert Hall. The program concludes with Johannes Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, where UMSO and WYSO members will perform sitting side by side, sometimes even sharing the same music stand.
UMSO musical director and conductor Monica Chen explained that many U of M music graduates are alumni of WYSO, which consists of musicians in grade 10 or higher and no older than 21 years old.
“This is a continuation, so that [graduates] have a chance to be the mentors where they were once the mentees in this side-by-side concert,” she said.
“Side by sides are really great […] We both have small orchestras, and it gives a chance to really build a much bigger orchestral sound.”
The concert’s title is derived from its finale, which Brahms composed for the university that awarded him an honorary doctorate in music in 1880. Chen noted the title was chosen as the concert joins two academic institutions and ensembles in a festival to celebrate the musicians’ growth.
“It’s a great learning experience on both sides because also we get to play some different repertoire,” she said. “Also just to start off the year, it’s an event to get everyone on the same page. We’re going to start right off to the races from the beginning.”
The director also highlighted Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 in the programming, which UMSO will perform.
“It’s always a balance of picking repertoire that is exciting and fits the first concert of the year, both in terms of energy, and as well as the level of the orchestra currently where it’s at,” she said.
“The soundscapes and everything in [Mendelssohn’s] piece just [bring] a real sense of solemnity, but also purpose in the whole emotional arc of the piece, and it teaches many different skills […] The Baroque styles that [seep] into the symphony is a great place to practice that style.”
In the end, Chen hopes the audience will simply enjoy the music, even if they may not remember or revisit the specific works in the future.
“I hope that experience will also resonate with the audience, as well as [lead to them] appreciating the Winnipeg youth and the up-and-coming talents that [are] right here in the city,” she added.
Audiences can look forward to three more UMSO concerts this academic year, including performances featuring student soloists and 2026 U of M Concerto Competition winners Breno Ferreira Barone and Émilie Strain, along with a collaboration with the Winnipeg Chamber Winds Collective in January as part of the Winnipeg New Music Festival.
Doors to Academic Festival open at 7 p.m. on Oct. 9. For tickets and more information, visit eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/music/event/um-symphony-orchestra-directed-by-monica-chen-1/. For future performances by the Desautels faculty of music, visit eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/music/.
