From Maria Larionoff, Artistic Director
Dear friends,
The MUSIC of COLLABORATION is the theme of our 26 | 27 season, and it promises to be a year full of thrilling musical adventures! Our soloists this season include several Missoula favorites, including Hamilton-based violin virtuoso Tim Fain and distinguished UM faculty members Chris Hahn and Margery Whatley. In April we welcome cello superstar Nicholas Canellakis in his highly anticipated SOR debut, performing the Saint-Saens Concerto #1 and his own Roscoe Rhapsody, a work inspired by his wife Arabella. Exceptional young talents join us in February for our popular annual NextGen concert, and we also expand our season to include a performance at the Performing Arts Center in Victor this November, presented by the Regal Ensemble.
Our free Season Preview concert on August 11th brings SOR musicians to a new venue—the Cooper Room in the Missoula Public Library. We are excited to collaborate with MPL and hope to see you at this family-friendly concert featuring works from our upcoming season.
Please do look for our mailings over the summer months, and feel free to add your name and information to the link on our website if you would like to join our SOR mailing list.
Tickets go on sale August 1st!
From all of us at SOR—have a wonderful summer, and we hope to see you at our concerts this year!
Musically yours,
Maria Larionoff
SOR Artistic Director
Dear Friends of SOR,
SOR reached a significant milestone last season. Not only did we celebrate our 40th anniversary, but our organization was selected by Arts Missoula to receive the prestigious 2025 Cultural Vision Award! We feel honored to have been given this recognition and are inspired to work hard to achieve new heights of musical excellence.
This season opens with a week-long regional tour of Montana, expanding our musical horizons to the Bitterroot Valley and traveling to Billings to launch the 75th anniversary of the illustrious Sukin Chamber Music Series. While in Billings, we will also participate in an outreach project working with local music students in the area before returning home to perform in Missoula.
We welcome three distinguished guest artists to our SOR series this season. Tippet Rise Arts Center Artistic Advisor Pedja Mužijević performs Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto–a masterpiece and favorite of pianists worldwide. Dr. Jennifer Cavanaugh, a beloved and esteemed member of the Missoula musical and academic community, joins SOR as soloist in Albinoni’s popular D minor oboe concerto–a baroque work of extraordinary beauty. Our season finale will be full of violin pyrotechnics when Stephanie Chase returns to Missoula to perform showpieces by Sarasate and Vaughan Williams, as well as a premiere of her new orchestral arrangement of de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs.
Additionally, we continue the vital work of providing mentorship and performance opportunities for exceptional music students in our Stockman Bank Master Class Series and our NextGen concert.
We appreciate and cherish each one of you who continues to support us and attend our concerts. Music is transformational–for both performers and audience members. The shared experience of the creative process powerfully affirms our vulnerability and humanity, comforts us, and enriches our lives.
Now—let’s make music!
Maria Larionoff
Artistic Director, SOR