Welcome to the Delano Chamber Orchestra‘s 2025–26 season! We are excited to bring the joy of symphonic masterworks to our community, coupled with some rarely heard works and a world premiere. Each concert will have a piano feature this year.

Our first concert, “To the Nines,” will feature works that include, as you may have guessed, the number 9. The first movement of Beethoven’s immortal Symphony No. 9 (we performed the second and third movements last season), Haydn’s Symphony No. 99, and Chopin’s Opus 9 for solo piano, performed by Dr. James Knight, Professor of Piano at Friends University.

Our second concert, “Mozart’s Wintery Mix,” will include a Divertimento for strings by Mozart, The Winter’s Passed, a work for oboe and strings by Wayne Barlow featuring Mike West, and Mozart’s hauntingly beautiful Piano Concerto No. 24 with Dr. Jonathan Shames from The University of Oklahoma as soloist.

Our third concert will feature the winners of our Young Artists Competition; these high school seniors will perform as soloists with the orchestra. I’m always so impressed by the talent and dedication of these rising stars! We will also experience the world premiere of a new composition for piano and orchestra by Wichita composer Michael Criss, performed by the Wichita legend, Stephen Rue.

I hope to see you at one, if not all, of our concerts this season. Thank you in advance for your support!

Dr. Wesley DeSpain,
Music Director and Conductor Delano Chamber Orchestra