Mark Russell Smith has been music director and conductor of the Quad City Symphony for 17 years.
Two classic piano concertos, two world premieres by female composers, and the Quad Cities debut of a new saxophone concerto are among highlights of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra's (QCSO's) 111th season, which will formally begin with its first Masterworks program on October 4 and 5.
The 2025-26 season's festivities will start with an annual Soiree fundraiser, this year's being Mission: (Im)Possible. Held at Davenport's Figge Art Museum on September 20 at 5:30 p.m. the $160-per-person tickets include cocktail hour, dinner, and performance, plus a paddle raise and live auction with Maestro Mark Russell Smith as auctioneer. The performance will feature violinists Emily Nash and Madeline Capistran, violist Nick Munagian, and cellist Laura Shaw.
For 2025-26, the QCSO's concert lineup will feature featuring six dynamic Masterworks, four intimate Up Close chamber concerts, two QCSO at the Movies presentations (Jurassic Park and the final Harry Potter film), and several special events.
“The 2025-26 season continues to uplift our vision – “QCSO, Where Access Meets Inspiration” – and we look forward to engaging the entire Quad Cities community with another incredibly diverse and compelling lineup,” said QCSO music director and conductor Smith. “Experience two magnificent piano concertos: one featuring the return of brilliant pianist Wei Luo to the Quad Cities stage, and another performed by world-renowned virtuoso Yefim Bronfman.
“We are thrilled to introduce captivating new works, including Billy Childs' powerful Diaspora brought to life by the extraordinary saxophonist Steven Banks. Our very own QCSO principal cellist Hannah Holman will premiere Rebecca Burkhardt’s exquisite new Cello Concerto. In February, shake off the winter chill with Stravinsky’s electrifying Rite of Spring, a groundbreaking masterpiece that continues to captivate audiences with its primal energy and revolutionary sound.
“The season culminates with the profoundly moving Violins of Hope concert, where our orchestra will perform on historic instruments once owned by Jewish musicians before and during World War II, symbolizing resilience, remembrance, and the ultimate triumph of humanity over evil and hatred,” Smith said.
“We’re thrilled to continue bringing generations together through unforgettable live symphonic experiences,” said QCSO executive director Brian Baxter. “This year’s QCSO at the Movies series features cinematic favorites – Jurassic Park with John Williams’ legendary score, and the epic conclusion of the Harry Potter saga with Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in Concert.”
QCSO Masterworks performances are held on Saturday evenings at the Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport, and Sunday afternoons at Augustana College's Centennial Hall, 3703 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island, unless otherwise noted.
The following Masterworks are scheduled for the 2025-26 season:
Masterworks I: Grieg Piano Concerto
October 4, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
October 5, 2025 | 2 p.m. | Centennial Hall
featuring Wei Luo, piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Polonaise from Eugene Onegin
Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 2
Masterworks II: Diaspora
November 8, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
November 9, 2025 | 2 p.m. | Centennial Hall
featuring Steven Banks, saxophone
Richard Strauss, Don Juan, Op. 20
Billy Childs, Diaspora, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra and Quad Cities premiere (the work had its world premiere in February 2024 with the Minnesota Orchestra)
Maurice Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2
Masterworks III: Schumann Piano Concerto
December 6, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
December 7, 2025 | 2 p.m. | Bartlett Performing Arts Center (3600 Avenue of the Cities, Moline)
featuring Yefim Bronfman, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3
Robert Schumann, Piano Concerto
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter"
Masterworks IV: The Rite of Spring
February 7, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
February 8, 2026 | 2 p.m. | Centennial Hall
Modest Mussorgsky, Dawn on the Moskva River
Angel Lam, world premiere, title TBA (Lam's new work was commissioned by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras, in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra. Her piece “Please let there be a paradise…” was scheduled for April 2025 QCSO concerts, and commissioned through the same program.)
Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring
Masterworks V: Beethoven Second Symphony
March 7, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
March 8, 2026 | 2 p.m. | Centennial Hall
featuring Hannah Holman, cello
Leonard Bernstein, Three Dance Episodes from On the Town
Rebecca Burkhardt, world premiere of Ballet for Cello and Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 2
Masterworks VI: Violins of Hope
April 11, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
April 12, 2026 | 2 p.m. | Centennial Hall
featuring Naha Greenholtz, violin
Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto for Two Violins
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 6
The 2025-26 season will feature two QCSO at the Movies screenings with the scores performed live:
Jurassic Park in Concert
October 25, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Adler Theatre
Hisham Bravo Groover, conductor
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in Concert
November 22, 2025 | 2 p.m. | Adler Theatre
November 22, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Alder Theatre
Hisham Bravo Groover, conductor
The Up Close chamber concerts will include
Up Close with Robert Parker
November 1, 2025 | 7:30 p.m. | Figge Art Museum
Robert Parker, trombone, and Marian Lee, piano
Up Close with Andy Parker
January 10, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | First Presbyterian Church (1702 Iowa Street, Davenport)
Andy Parker, oboe, and Marian Lee, piano
Up Close with Blueprint
March 15, 2026 | 5:00 p.m. | Figge Art Museum
featuring Naha Greenholtz and Emily Nash, violin, Bruno Vaz Da Silva, viola, and Hannah Holman, cello.
Up Close with Violins of Hope
April 18, 2026 | 7:30 p.m. | Figge Art Museum
featuring Hillary Kingsley and Erik Rohde, violin, and Hannah Holman, cello
Regarding the November 8 and 9 Masterworks repertoire, Smith said he first heard Billy Childs’ Diaspora premiere in Minneapolis, where he lives, and where his wife has played in the Minnesota Orchestra for 34 years.
“I'm not a big fan of saxophone, but when I heard this guy play this piece with the Minnesota Orchestra, I was just dumbfounded,” Smith said of Steven Banks, who will perform it here. “This is a master of this instrument … . He will take your breath away.”
Composer Billy Childs has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and won six.
Smith said the Israeli-American pianist Yefim Bronfman approached the QCSO about playing here, which he will do in December for Schumann's popular Piano Concerto. “We are thrilled,” the QCSO conductor said. “He is a world-class artist who has played everywhere.”
A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honors given to American instrumentalists, Bronfman received the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University in 2010 and an honorary doctorate in 2015 from the Manhattan School of Music.
Smith is also excited to premiere a new, yet-to-be-written Angel Lam work on the same February program as Stravinsky's iconic Rite of Spring from 1913. Lam's new work will be about 25 minutes in length.
“Another cool thing about the new commission is they provide for us to have a reading session,” Baxter said of Lam working with the orchestra this fall. “She'll be here twice next year, so she can workshop the piece with the orchestra. It's pretty unusual to have that level of opportunity.”
Another premiere will arrive next March, this one by composer Rebecca Burkhardt, former longtime conductor at University of Northern Iowa, who wrote a cello concerto for QCSO principal cellist Hannah Holman. It's titled Ballet for Cello and Orchestra, in part because Holman plays for the New York City Ballet Orchestra.
Next April’s Violins of Hope concerts promise to be most meaningful and impactful. Violins of Hope is a project of concerts based on a private collection of violins, violas and cellos, all collected since the end of World War II. Many of the instruments belonged to Jews before and during the war, and many were donated by, or bought from, survivors. Some arrived through family members, and many simply carry Stars of David as decoration.
The instruments themselves represent the victory of the human spirit over evil and hatred, and each concert is accompanied by an extensive educational project, as well as an exhibition of many instruments alongside their individual stories.
For tickets and more information on the new Quad City Symphony Orchestra season, visit QCSO.org.
