Mission and History
Redwood Symphony was founded by Eric Kujawsky in 1985, as an outgrowth of the Stanford Summer Orchestra, started by Dr. Kujawsky at Stanford University where he was a doctoral student (D.M.A. in Conducting, 1985). The orchestra initially performed at Foothill College, but moved to Cañada College in August, 1987.
Redwood Symphony has maintained an unusual profile throughout its history. From the onset, Dr. Kujawsky started with several unusual premises that have been key to the orchestra’s success.
The first was that, in an area like the San Francisco Peninsula, with its many highly educated professionals and musical ensembles, there would be many amateur musicians who had grown bored playing the standard repertoire and would enthusiastically embrace a group dedicated to playing works normally associated with professional orchestras. The result is a volunteer group of uncommonly good quality, rarely supplemented by paid personnel other than featured guest soloists. The quality is good enough to have allowed the orchestra to record six studio-recorded CDs.
The second premise is that an orchestra, even a community orchestra, should enthusiastically promote contemporary music to keep classical music relevant in an age dominated by pop music. Redwood Symphony has a strong record not only of premieres but of also doing the first local performances of important works after they’ve been premiered by the San Francisco Symphony or Cabrillo Music Festival. Besides Mahler symphonies, Redwood Symphony has performed most of the major orchestral works of Igor Stravinsky and Béla Bartók, as well as music by John Adams, Michael Daugherty, Aaron Copland and other 20th- and 21st-century composers.
The third premise is that Redwood Symphony would strive to differentiate itself from the competition not in only repertoire, but also in concert format and dress, to appeal more to audiences that are new to classical music. Dress is “formal casual”; black with a “splash of color,” with jackets and ties generally eschewed. Encores and extra small works are often slipped into the programming, the orchestra is used to demonstrate important points, and comedy bits—including an ongoing series of recorded reminders to turn off cell phones—are interpolated. Unlike other symphonies or venues, Redwood Symphony is noted for allowing the silent use of mobile devices with lighted screens from within a designated seating area during performances.
Redwood Symphony is also dedicated to educational outreach, introducing and fostering an appreciation of classical and contemporary music especially by youth. In order to reach new and younger audiences, Redwood Symphony enthusiastically offers children under 18 free admission to most performances when accompanied by an adult. It also features an annual "Meet the Orchestra" night at its "Family Concert," where the orchestra sections divide themselves into separate rooms to meet audience members prior to the main performance, and demonstrate their various instruments, sounds, and techniques, while answering questions presented. At this same Family Concert, a limited number of lucky children have a brief opportunity to actually conduct the Redwood Symphony under the tutelage of Dr. Kujawsky.
Highlights of Redwood Symphony’s history include:
- Notable premieres (see below)
- A complete Mahler symphony cycle (and a nearly complete second cycle), including two different versions of the complete Tenth Symphony.
- John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 (“Of Rage and Remembrance”) (1993)
- Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 4 (1998)
- Michael Daugherty’s Metropolis Symphony (2002)
- H.K. Gruber’s Frankenstein!! (2004)
- Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila Symphony (2008)
- Mason Bates's Alternative Energy (2016)
- Performances of complete concert operas, including Porgy and Bess, Candide and Don Giovanni.
