Sunday | November 2, 2025 | 5:00pm

Pre-concert talk 4:15pm 

The Power of Overtures

We are delighted to perform for you our first concert of this new season which will feature The Power of Overtures.  The first half features concert overtures — works complete in themselves, with a beginning, middle and end, like a story. We’ll perform Sibelius’ Finlandia, Suppé’s Light Cavalry and Brahms’ Tragic Overture. The second half presents opera overtures, which serve as introductions to larger works: Verdi’s Nabucco, Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. In the pre-concert lecture, which starts at 4:15pm, our Music Director and Conductor, Arlette Cárdenes, will share insights on how concert and opera overtures differ in purpose and design. You’ll also hear audio clips highlighting key themes to listen for during the performance.

Tickets

Tickets are FREE and may be obtained from Eventbrite: 

Concert Location

Beach Cities Symphony 2025 -2026 Season

News & Announcements

Dr. Geoffrey Pope, Maestro, has passed the conductor’s baton to Maestra Arlette Cárdenes – our first female conductor! We’d like to introduce Arlette Cárdenes, She is also our new Music Director and has a wonderful season of music planned for you!

Arlette Cárdenes is the Music Director of the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra, having previously served as Associate Conductor since 2024 and Conductor of the Passacaglia Chamber Orchestra. She co-founded the Culver City Chamber Orchestra in 1997 with her brother, violinist Andrés Cárdenes, and has been its Music Director since 2005.

A dedicated cellist, she performs with the Peninsula and Beach Cities Symphonies and teaches privately in Culver City, where she has maintained a cello studio for over 30 years. Ms. Cárdenes earned her Master of Music in Cello Performance from the University of Michigan on full scholarship and her Bachelor’s from CSUN, where she won the concerto competition. 

Her conducting studies include work with esteemed mentors such as John Koshak, Marin Alsop, and Leonard Slatkin through programs like the Conductor’s Guild Symposium and the American Symphony Orchestra League. She has performed with numerous orchestras across Michigan and California and now also offers virtual lessons to students nationwide.

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Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts & Culture. We are grateful to be a Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture grant recipient.