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2026-2027 Season

TCHAIKOVSKY 5

February 20, 2027 • 7:30 PM

/

February 21, 2027 • 3:00 PM

Sunset Center, Carmel Map

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Jayce Ogren, Music Director and Conductor

Ruth Stuart, English horn
Dylan Girard, trumpet

Elegance gives way to exuberance in this compelling musical journey. Maurice Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin commemorates friends whom the composer lost in World War I, with each movement taking form of a French Baroque dance. Aaron Copland expresses the loneliness of modern urban life in his contemplative classic Quiet City, in which Monterey Symphony principals Dylan Girard (trumpet) and Ruth Stuart (English horn) step forward as soloists. Composed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Valerie Coleman's Seven O'Clock Shout dramatizes the nightly phenomenon of people stepping outside to cheer, clap, and bang pots in support of frontline workers. The program closes with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's mighty Symphony No. 5, a work that grapples with fate and its acceptance.
- Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli

PROGRAM
96-minute program, includes a 20-minute intermission

RAVEL
Le Tombeau du Couperin

COPLAND
Quiet City
Ruth Stuart, English horn
Dylan Girard, trumpet

Valerie COLEMAN
Seven O'Clock Shout
Alan Truong, conductor
with Youth Music Monterey

— intermission —

TCHAIKOVSKY
Symphony No. 5

Dylan Girard

Dylan Girard

Trumpeter Dylan Girard is a versatile performer, educator, and clinician in the San Francisco Bay Area. Recent engagements include appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Utah Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, and with the Monterey Symphony, where he holds the position of Principal Trumpet. Aside from classical music, Girard has shared the stage with the popular indie-rock band Belle and Sebastian, played sold-out shows at Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park, and is a featured recording artist at Skywalker Sound Studios.

Girard is an alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Oregon, and he has held fellowships with the New World Symphony, Verbier Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and Aspen Music Festival. He has previously been a visiting brass coach for Colombia's Academia Filharmonica, and often returns to the University of Oregon to give masterclasses and lessons. Currently, he is an instructor of trumpet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and works regularly with youth music programs throughout the SF Bay Area.

Ruth Stuart

Ruth Stuart

Ruth has a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Central Michigan University and a Graduate Degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Joseph Robinson, former principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic. After completing her education, she performed with the Mexico City Philharmonic. She spent many summers performing around the world in Spoleto, Italy, in Graz, Austria and in the former Soviet Union. She has performed with the Monterey Symphony on English horn and oboe since 1995. She has performed with most of the Bay Area orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony and Ballet. Currently, she plays English horn with the Sacramento Philharmonic and oboe with the Sacramento Opera and Ballet. She also maintains a full teaching studio at Forrest's Music in Berkeley. She feels privileged to be a part of the music world and enjoys enriching the lives of her two young daughters, Hannah and Sadie, with her music.

Alan Truong

Alan Truong

Alan Truong — conductor, educator, presenter — is a rising force in the sphere of American music, connecting music with the experiences of performers and listeners alike.

He was recently Cover Conductor for the New York Philharmonic's Art of the Scoreconcert series and has made public appearances with the Juilliard Lab Orchestra and the Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra. With the Juilliard Orchestra, he has assisted some of the leading conductors of this generation, including Bertrand de Billy and Donald Runnicles.

In 2023, he served as Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Festival Orchestra, in addition to being a fellow at the Conducting Academy. In the Winter of 2022, he stepped in on 48 hours' notice to conduct AXIOM, Juilliard's New Music Ensemble in a concert of world premieres.

In 2025, Alan came full circle when he was named the first alumni Music Director of Youth Music Monterey County, having spent formative years in the orchestras as an adolescent playing the Bassoon. A Salinas native, he is a galvanized advocate for music education in under-resourced communities, a result of being raised in his hometown's Youth Orchestra of Salinas, an El Sistema-inspired program. He continuously serves as a Teaching Artist, actively forming the future generation of the musical community in a city historically afflicted by an arts drought. In the past, he has worked extensively with the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras, and is a regular guest conductor with the Rochester Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has participated in masterclasses with some of today's foremost conductors and pedagogues, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Bertrand de Billy, Robert Spano, Cristian Macelaru, and James Ross. Alan was a recipient of the Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant and the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. As of 2024, he holds a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Juilliard School under the auspices of David Robertson.

He also holds a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Upcoming

LOVE LETTER TO NEW YORK

LOVE LETTER TO NEW YORK

Sep 15 & 16, 2026

APPALACHIAN SPRING + ALEXI KENNEY

APPALACHIAN SPRING + ALEXI KENNEY

Oct 17 & 18, 2026

SLAVONIC DANCES + TWO PIANOS

SLAVONIC DANCES + TWO PIANOS

Nov 21 & 22, 2026

BRAHMS: THE SYMPHONIES

BRAHMS: THE SYMPHONIES

March 20 & 21, 2027

BISS PLAYS BEETHOVEN

BISS PLAYS BEETHOVEN

April 17 & 18, 2027

MAHLER'S RESURRECTION

MAHLER'S RESURRECTION

May 22 & 23, 2027

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