Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, a nonprofit community organization that brings together adult musicians across all career paths, will kick off the new year with the second program of its 59th season, scheduled Feb. 3 and 4 in Palo Alto and Los Altos, respectively.
Based in Los Altos but with connections to Palo Alto through the Palo Alto Adult School, Master Sinfonia has fewer than 40 musicians, many of whom have been playing with the group for many years and who are in other professions.
Master Sinfonia is known for including works by contemporary composers in its programs. But for its February concerts, the group will return to the classics with performances of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Oberon” Overture, Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 4 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. Hélène Wickett is the featured soloist on the piano.
Liane Sharp-Fuccio, one of the orchestra’s four French hornists, said she has been with the group for about 25 years. She is also part of a three-generation lineage in Master Sinfonia: her mother was a former principal cellist and her son joined the chamber group on trumpet for a few concerts.
“Thursday nights, for a big chunk of my life, I’ve been going to Master Sinfonia,” she said.
Sharp-Fuccio, who lives in Sunnyvale, works as a preschool teacher and trains teachers in early childhood education at De Anza College. Like many of her colleagues at Master Sinfonia, she holds degrees in both music and fields relating to her primary job. Her section mates are engineers, university professors and marketing experts.
David Ramadanoff conducts and serves as music director for Master Sinfonia. He previously conducted for the San Francisco Symphony before joining the chamber orchestra in 1978.
“He’s a professional conductor and we’re this community orchestra, but he doesn’t talk down to us. He has these great expectations and then that makes everybody rise up,” Sharp-Fuccio said.
At every performance, Ramadanoff, now in his 38th season as music director, introduces each piece with a spoken segment about its history and composer. He said he hopes to make classical music more accessible and approachable through these educational concerts.
“A lot of people will come to a classical concert and say, ‘No, I don’t know that much about music, and I feel kind of intimidated,’” Ramadanoff said. “So, I take just a few minutes at the beginning to tell them a little bit about the composer and what they can expect.”
Master Sinfonia is also the only orchestra to perform at the Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center. The orchestra has added this venue as part of a post-COVID “expansion,” according to Ramadanoff.
Ramadanoff said he encourages those interested in attending the upcoming performances to consider gifting a ticket to a teacher, as they can bring any students under the age of 18 to the show for free to learn more about classical music.
Master Sinfonia’s upcoming concert is 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Palo Alto High School Performing Arts Center, 50 Embarcadero Road, and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Los Altos United Methodist Church, 655 Magdalena Ave.
Tickets are $20 to $30. Children under the age of 17 can attend for free with a paying adult.
For tickets and to learn more about donating and volunteering, visit
mastersinfonia.org.
