Orchestra for all

Five concerts have been announced as part of the 2025-26 season of the Weidner Philharmonic Concert Series, including cornerstone fall and spring concerts as well as collaborations with the Northeastern Wisconsin Dance Organization (NEWDO) and the Dudley Birder Chorale.

Housed at the Weidner Center on the campus of UW-Green Bay, the Weidner Philharmonic showcases the exceptional talents of accomplished orchestral musicians from across Northeast Wisconsin, all within the outstanding acoustics of Cofrin Family Hall.

“We are a regional professional orchestra — so our musicians are in Green Bay, they’re in Appleton and they’re in Oshkosh — and we all gather together to perform great music,” said Michelle McQuade-Dewhirst, artistic director of the Weidner Philharmonic. “As artistic director, my goal is to expand the parameters of what that great music can be. So you’ll hear traditional work, but you’ll also hear work by modern composers who are expressing something about the times we live in right now.”

And that sentiment is certainly reflected in this year’s series lineup.

The first concert, EcoRhythms, will take place Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Attendees of this concert will also be the first audience to hear the world premiere of “Sinfonia Sundaica” by Thai composer Narongrit Dhamabutra.

This concert will be free to attend, with guests invited to arrive early for a pre-concert tailgate in the Weidner Center parking lot complete with food trucks, lawn games, the UW-Green Bay Pep Band, guest marching bands from area high schools and more.

The Nutcracker at The Weidner will return with four shows Nov. 28-30.

This concert is the only Nutcracker in Northeast Wisconsin performed with a live symphony orchestra and features dancers from NEWDO, live music from the Weidner Philharmonic and an international cast of professional guest dancers.

Holiday Pops at The Weidner will return with two shows on Dec. 20, bringing the Dudley Birder Chorale of St. Norbert College to perform holiday music favorites alongside the Weidner Philharmonic.

April 18, the Weidner Philharmonic will perform Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban In Concert, inviting audiences to relive the magic of Harry Potter soaring across the big screen while experiencing the music of a live symphony orchestra performing John Williams’ score.

The final concert of the Weidner Philharmonic’s 2025-26 season will be Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on May 2.

The concert will feature Valerie Coleman’s Umoja: Anthem of Unity and Beethoven’s colossal Ninth Symphony with special guest performers from the Dudley Birder Chorale and UW-Green Bay Choirs.

This concert will also be free to attend.

Throughout this season, the Weidner Philharmonic will continue on its mission of creating accessible opportunities for the community to experience orchestral music with both the September and May concerts being free to attend and all concerts being open to new symphony audiences.

“These performances are open to anyone,” McQuade-Dewhirst said. “You don’t have to have some sort of pre-existing knowledge about what an orchestra does or what it is. You can come as you are and everyone is welcome. We just want to share the music with everyone.”

“Weidner Philharmonic concerts are really built to introduce new audiences to orchestra,” said Kelli Strickland, ____________ at the Weidner Center. “Sometimes symphony has a reputation for making people afraid that they’re going to clap at the wrong time or they won’t know what they’re listening to, but new audiences can be certain that they’re going to get context and education from the podium, which is really helpful to understand what you’re listening to. It’s a relaxed experience and there’s no judgement… Our mission really is to welcome new audiences to the art form.”

Tickets for the 2025-2026 Weidner Philharmonic Concert Series are on-sale now.

Tickets for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban In Concert will go on-sale Aug. 8 at 10 a.m.

Those looking to purchase tickets for a Weidner Philharmonic concert should note that the Weidner Center’s ticket sales are now done in-house and no longer through TicketStar.

“We have sold tickets through TicketStar, which is a great ticketing vendor…” Strickland said. “But bringing ticketing in-house allows us to offer a level of customer service that can be difficult for TicketStar, who is selling tickets to lots of different venues. Because we sell programs in series, it sometimes requires a level of knowledge of the programming and flexibility that we can offer our customers that wasn’t possible with a third party.”

And with ticketing scams through online resale sites on the rise at venues across Brown County, Strickland said the best way to make sure you’re getting tickets from the official source is to start at weidnercenter.com.

“I recommend to any ticket buyer for any event, anywhere, to start with the venue,” she said. “If you start with the place that you’re going to see the program as opposed to just typing in, for example, Bob Dylan Green Bay, if you start with the Weidner Center’s site, you’re going to be led to the official ticketing outlet. It’s sort of one-stop shopping. You can come to weidnercenter.com and you’ll be taken directly to buy tickets through our ticketing system.”