Classical music in Palo Alto

Palo Alto has no professional symphony of its own. What it has is a thick web of community orchestras, student ensembles, youth programs and chamber series, plus a summer festival in Atherton that draws some of the best chamber musicians in the world. On a typical weekend in the school year you can choose between a volunteer orchestra at Cubberley, a student symphony at Bing Concert Hall and a string quartet in a church hall, often for less than the price of a movie and dinner.

This guide goes deeper than our live music overview. It covers who plays what, where and when in the 2026 to 2027 season, using the dates each group publishes on its own site as of November 1, 2026. Programs and dates do change, so check the linked pages before you go.

Palo Alto Philharmonic

The Palo Alto Philharmonic is the city's community orchestra. A group of musicians and classical music lovers founded it in 1988 under conductor Gideon Grau. Today Lara Webber is music director and Lee Actor is composer-in-residence emeritus. The players are local volunteers and the nonprofit is run by an all-volunteer board, which is why tickets cost a fraction of a professional concert.

The season follows a set pattern. Four full orchestra concerts form the backbone, all at Cubberley Theatre on the old Cubberley Community Center campus. Three chamber concerts and a September baroque program take place at First Lutheran Church in Palo Alto, played by small groups of orchestra members and guests. A one-hour family concert in May features the winners of the orchestra's concerto competition for young musicians.

The 2026 to 2027 season

The season opened with a baroque program on September 19 and Darkness to Light on October 24, which paired Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and Dvořák's Seventh Symphony. Geoffrey Burr, the orchestra's own clarinetist, was the soloist. Single tickets are $25 for adults and seniors and $10 for youth and students. The family concert is $15 and $10. A deluxe package covers all nine concerts at 25% off and a newer four-concert pack gives 20% off any four.

Young players should note the Philharmonic's 2027 Concerto Movement Competition, with applications due December 31, 2026. Adult string players can ask about joining, since the orchestra says it is looking for violas and cellos in particular.

Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO)

The name trips up a lot of visitors. The Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra is not a professional chamber orchestra but an award-winning youth string program for players of high school age and younger. It marked 60 years in 2026. Its five ensembles are SuperStrings, Preparatory, Debut, Sinfonia and Senior PACO, each with roughly 30 members who rehearse weekly. Chamber music sits at the center of the training, which sets PACO apart from most youth orchestras. Scott Krijnen is music director and the office is at 4000 Middlefield Road.

PACO's public concerts are short, inexpensive and often impressive. Listings for the 2026 to 2027 season include:

• November 7, 2026, 7:30 p.m.: a program of Quenton Xavier Blache, Mads Tolling, Shostakovich and Wojciech Kilar at Cubberley Theatre.
• November 8, 2 p.m.: PACO Academy chamber ensembles in Haydn, Mendelssohn, Dvořák and Walker at the Palo Alto Art Center.
• November 14, 7:30 p.m.: the Sinfonia orchestra with resident conductor Eugene Sor, also at the Art Center.
• December 6, 3 p.m.: a Holiday Extravaganza with cellists Alex Hersh and Colman Itzkoff and the Peninsula Women's Chorus at Smithwick Theatre, Foothill College.
• January 24, 2027: SuperStrings at noon and Preparatory at 3:30 p.m. at the Art Center.

Tickets go through the links on PACO's home page. A season brochure is posted there too.

Stanford orchestras and visiting artists

Stanford supplies two kinds of classical concert. The Department of Music presents its own students and faculty, while Stanford Live books touring stars. Both use Bing Concert Hall, so a $37 student orchestra ticket buys you the same acoustics as a touring orchestra.

Student ensembles

The department's fall 2026 listings include the Stanford Philharmonia on November 7, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra on November 13 and 15 and the Wind Symphony on November 14, all at Bing, with a Sunday matinee of the symphony on November 15 at 2:30 p.m. Ticketed ensemble nights run $27 to $37 and Stanford students get in free. Free noon concerts in Campbell Recital Hall fill selected Wednesdays and Fridays. Our guide to Stanford music department concerts has the full table and parking advice.

Stanford Live's classical season

Stanford Live's 2026 to 2027 classical highlights include the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason on November 8, Hélène Grimaud on December 6 and three programs by the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale. String quartet fans should follow the St. Lawrence Legacy Series, with the Balourdet and Terra quartets on January 24 and the Verona Quartet on May 9, 2027. The Stanford Live guide lists the rest of the season and explains tickets.

Organ recitals at Memorial Church

Memorial Church's summer maintenance closure to visitors was scheduled to end on October 31, 2026. University Organist Robert Huw Morgan gives free lunchtime recitals on selected Wednesdays during the academic quarters. The music starts at 12:15 p.m. and light refreshments follow in the Round Room. The listed fall dates are November 11, December 2 and December 16, 2026. The recitals are open to all. Online donations support the church's concert series. Our Memorial Church guide covers the building and its organs.

Music@Menlo

The biggest name in local chamber music sits just north of Palo Alto in Atherton. Music@Menlo was founded by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han as a program of Menlo School and held its first festival in 2003. Each summer it brings internationally known chamber musicians to the Menlo School campus for three weeks of concerts, talks and a training institute for young players. In October 2026, cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianist Hyeyeon Park took over as artistic directors, leading the festival into its 25th anniversary.

The 2027 festival is listed for July 16 to August 7, 2027. The venues are small, which is the point:

• Spieker Center for the Arts: the festival's 384-seat home hall on the Menlo School campus.
• Stent Family Hall: its Spieker Ballroom seats 148 for the most intimate concerts.
• Martin Family Hall: a 220-seat room used for lectures, master classes and some student performances.
• The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton High School: a 492-seat theater at 555 Middlefield Road.

Alongside the main concerts, the 2026 festival ran Prelude Performances and Koret Young Performers Concerts by institute students, plus master classes that are open to the public. Menlo School is at 50 Valparaiso Avenue. The festival posts parking and accessibility details on its visit pages. Outside summer, Music@Menlo presents occasional events. Its April 2027 Beethoven Piano Sonata Cycle has a lecture by pianist Gilles Vonsattel on April 17 and his sonata program on April 18, which Stanford Live lists at Bing in partnership with the festival. It is one stop in an eight-concert Bay Area cycle of all 32 sonatas. Vonsattel teaches a master class for Stanford students the next day. Our Menlo Park guide helps with dinner nearby.

Chamber music in churches and small rooms

Ives Collective

The Ives Collective presents chamber music in Palo Alto and San Francisco and lets you pay with a donation of any amount at the door instead of buying season tickets. Its 2026 to 2027 Palo Alto dates are a winter concert on Sunday, January 24, 2027 at 3 p.m. at First Congregational Church, 1985 Louis Road. That one is un-ticketed. A spring concert follows on Saturday, April 24 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Avenue. Smaller salon programs take place in St. Mark's social hall on January 17 and April 18.

Classical Sundays at Meyhouse

Meyhouse, the Turkish restaurant at 640 Emerson Street downtown, runs a jazz room that has added a Classical Sundays series. The next Palo Alto date listed is November 15, 2026, when 14-year-old violinist Calliope Smith and pianist Kim Lee play Bach, Beethoven, Sarasate, Prokofiev and Bartók. Grammy-winning violinist Mads Tolling plays the series a week later at the San Ramon location. The room seats about 30 per seating, so book through the Meyhouse Jazz site. Our jazz guide covers its main series.

Opera

West Bay Opera stages full productions with orchestra at the Lucie Stern Theatre. Its 2026 to 2027 season continues with Verdi's Don Carlos in February and Puccini's Turandot in May. See our theater guide for dates.

Orchestras a short drive away

• Peninsula Symphony. Now in its 78th season under music director Mitchell Sardou Klein. Its annual Stanford concerts with the Stanford Symphonic Chorus are at Bing on November 20 and 21, 2026. The season ends in May 2027 with pianist Jon Nakamatsu in MacDowell's Second Piano Concerto.
• Redwood Symphony. An all-volunteer orchestra known for ambitious contemporary repertoire, based at Cañada College in Redwood City since 2007 and now in its 42nd season. In April 2027 it joins Schola Cantorum for Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms.
• San Francisco Symphony. Davies Symphony Hall is an easy Caltrain and Muni trip. Our San Francisco day trip guide has transit tips.

Planning a concert weekend

For a classical weekend, start with the Philharmonic or PACO on a Saturday night at Cubberley, then catch a Sunday afternoon chamber program or a Stanford Live matinee. In summer, plan around Music@Menlo, whose concerts cluster in the evenings with free daytime events. Visitors coming for the festival or a big Stanford weekend should compare hotels near Stanford early, since July and November weekends book up.

If you only have one evening, pick by mood. A student symphony at Bing gives you a big orchestra in a superb room. The Philharmonic gives you a neighborhood crowd and a friendly price. A church chamber concert gives you the music up close, often with the players chatting between pieces.

Frequently asked questions