Born in the pandemic, Symphony on the Go is still going strong
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Visitors to Costa Mesa’s Heller Park were treated to an evening of chamber music, sunshine and relaxation on Tuesday, thanks to Pacific Symphony’s outdoor “Symphony on the Go!” concert series, currently making the rounds in Orange County cities this summer.
The free series on wheels has been entertaining local audiences since 2021, when it was conceived during the pandemic as a means of providing open-air venues where Pacific Symphony musicians could perform.
“One of our donors offered to give us a sum of money for us to create a mobile stage we could take around to people,” Eileen Jeanette, senior vice president of artistic planning and production, recalled Thursday. “He was very concerned that our musicians weren’t performing and thought if we could do it outside, it would be safer for everyone. So our president, John Forsyte, said, ‘Eileen, figure this out.”
Jeanette assembled a team and came up with a plan to convert a trailer into a drop-down stage with plenty of storage for musicians’ instruments and the equipment needed to plug and play at virtually any outdoor venue, including city parks.
Today, Symphony on the Go features 12 groups of musicians who perform from 25 to 28 concerts a year and even travel to area schools and play for clients served by nonprofit partners of the orchestra’s Heartstrings community program.
In addition to Tuesday’s performance, two more Costa Mesa concerts are planned this month. A brass quintet plays on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the city’s Vista Park, while a string quartet performs Aug. 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Shiffer Park.
Jeanette says sometimes cities pay for the programs, while others are made possible by area legislators, like Rep. Dave Min (D-Irvine), a former state senator who earmarked funds for programs in his local district.
With that funding, Symphony on the Go plans to make a pit stop at Huntington Beach Central Library at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, where audience will hear an ensemble consisting of two trumpets, a horn, trombone and tuba.
Next month in Laguna Beach, the mobile players will perform a Sept. 25 concert taking place at the Heisler Park Amphitheater at 5:30 p.m., another concert funded by Min. Other backers of the series have included Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley and Bank of America, Jeanette said.
Since its inception, Symphony on the Go has gone from featuring serious and somber classical selections to a medley of themed pieces mixed with recognizable tunes custom made for an evening out at a local park.
“It meets people where they are, in their neighborhoods, and the programming is light and bright,” Jeanette said, describing children and families dancing around or talking with performers after a show. “It’s a very sweet program, and the musicians love it.”
Five years in, Jeanette jokes the program’s mobile stage, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Irvine’s Great Park Live, is the only venue owned outright by the nonprofit orchestra.
She said she’s been pleased to see the series evolve from its humble pandemic origins.
“It’s become a real staple of our summer offerings for the people of Orange County,” she said. “There’s something so magical about it — I’m so proud of it.”
