Wind Orchestra: Dark Winds
2026-2027 Season Winter concert featuring Hindemith’s Symphony in Bb and a world premiere suite from The Dark Crystal.
Sneak Peek for The Dark Crystal
Wind Orchestra: Will They? Won’t They?
2026-2027 Season Fall concert featuring works by
Vaughn Williams
Alarcon
Cuong
..as well as music from the French film Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Wind Orchestra: Civita Band Festival
Join the Wind Orchestra at the 2026 Civita Band Festival. Admission is free. Facilities include food trucks and playgrounds. Bring a chair and enjoy our band plus many others.
Program includes pieces from Tchaikovsky, Sousa, Day, and others.
Percussion Collective: Soldiers, Storms, & Stars
Join the Percussion Collective, in collaboration with Windscape, for a wide range of instruments and pieces. Featuring works by Stravinsky, Milhaud, Rouse and more.
FREE ADMISSION
Wind Orchestra: Energy
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Energy
…featuring works by Cuong, Stravinsky, and others. Plus our Conducting Fellowship winner
Percussion Collective: Seaborne
The Finest City Percussion Collective presents Seaborne, featuring works by Neustradter, Korneitchouk, and more.
FREE ADMISSION
Percussion Collective: Seaborne
The Finest City Percussion Collective presents Seaborne, featuring works by Neustradter, Korneitchouk, and more.
FREE ADMISSION
Wind Orchestra: Allegro con Brio
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Allegro con Brio
…featuring works by Giannini, Mower and others
Today we have some very fun and exciting music for you, all based on the last movement of our symphony, Allegro con Brio, a musical term translating to "fast with brightness!"
Finest City Brass: The Planets
Finest City Brass and Percussion perform works by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Copland, Broughton, and Cirone!
FREE ADMISSION (donations welcome)
Wind Orchestra: The Mind's Voyage
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents The Mind’s Voyage
…featuring works by Ellerby, Maslanka, Shostakovich, and others
What on earth is The Mind’s Voyage?? I’m no fan of floofy concert titles for no reason, so wanted to make this meaningful. Using David Maslanka’s The Seeker as a jumping-off point, we look to take our journey not through the music alone, but asking how other disciplines look at art and culture. Maslanka’s score mentions inspiration from Buddhism — but what is at the core of Buddhism, and how does the music itself relate? With help from some special guest speakers, we look to explore interdisciplinary connections between music and sciences, humanities, and more. Enjoy the journey!!
Finest City Brass and Percussion
The program includes works by Dukas, Grainger, De Meij, and Respighi and includes the band masterwork Symphony No. 1: The Lord of the Rings and the orchestral tone poem The Pines of Rome!
Admission: FREE (donations welcome)
Wind Orchestra: Heroes
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Fear and Fantasy
…featuring works by Hailstork, Danielpour, Barber, and others
Welcome to the Finest City Wind Orchestra’s second season! This first concert will explore “Heroes,” but from a robust understanding of the term.
Pop a Cork!
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Pop a Cork!
…featuring works by Sousa, Day, Weinberger and others
Our final May concert has some more bubbly fun, just like the band does after most rehearsals, with “Pop a Cork!” We’ll sprinkle movements of John Philip Sousas’s refreshing People Who Live in Glass Houses between works by Thea Musgrave, Kevin Day, and Jaromir Weinberger. This concert also features our concerto competition winner, Justine Hamlin on clarinet, and our conducting fellow Andrew Fresques
Justine Hamlin, Clarinetist
Justine Hamlin earned her Bachelors of Music in Clarinet Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and her Masters of Music in Clarinet Performance from the New England Conservatory (NEC) and later, a Doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of St. Augustine. While at NEC, Justine became more active in chamber music and studied solo repertoire under the direction of world-famous soloist Richard Stoltzman. In addition, Justine’s teachers include Ixi Chen, Ronald Aufmann, Yehuda Gilad, and Luis Baez.
As a performer, Justine freelances and performs in chamber ensemble and solo recitals including the ensemble Windscape and is a founding member of the Finest City Wind Orchestra. Other ensembles she has performed with include the Fresno Philharmonic, Santa Cruz Symphony, West Bay Opera, New Music Works, Berkeley Symphony, Oakland Symphony, and others.
Finest City Brass - "Pictures at an Exhibition"
The Finest City Brass will collaborate with local high school musicians as we perform music by Strauss, Whitacre, Tomasi, and Reich. The concert closes with Mussorgsky's grand masterwork, Pictures at the Exhibition!
FREE ADMISSION (donations welcome)
Sound the Bells!
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Sound the Bells!
…featuring works by Williams, Giroux, Daugherty, and Grainger
Our Spring concerts will be just as exciting! March’s “Sound the Bells!” will explore the noble, the venerable, and sometimes funny “ding” of a bell, and culminate with Percy Grainger’s magnum opus Lincolnshire Posy.
Winds of Winter
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Ancient Winter Winds
…featuring works by Nelson, Stolzel, and Gandalfi
As the weather cools into winter, we’ll keep bringing the exhilirationt at our December concert, “Ancient Winter Winds." We’re grateful to be hosted by the wonderful program at Mission Hills High School, directed by Chris Coughlin, and will perform works by Ron Nelson, Ingrid Stolzel, and Michael Gandalfi. Gandalfi’s Flourishes and Meditations on a Renaissance Theme is an especially exciting mix of the refined double reed melodies over delicate tambourine (as you might expect), and vibrant syncopations accenting virtuosic flourishes.
Finest City Brass
The Finest City Brass invites you to our debut concert on Sunday October 27th at 5pm! We are excited to perform both original music and notable transcriptions including the first movement of Mahler's monumental Symphony No 5 and the band masterwork Lincolnshire Posy. Admission is FREE!
Fear and Fantasy
The Finest City Wind Orchestra presents Fear and Fantasy
…featuring works by Bach, Dahl, Dukas, Bronnenkant, Perkins, and Grantham.
Our October performance will put you in the mood for the autumn season with “Fantasy and Fear.” The concert features some older classics alongside newer works — favorites like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and a Prelude and Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach will be a great compliment to Lindsey Bronnenkant’s Tarot (I see you enjoying a concert in the future!!). We also welcome to the podium SDSU Director of Bands Dr. Shannon Kitelinger, a pillar of artistic music-making in our region, and welcome to the audience composer Andrew David Perkins as we play his haunting Asylum.
Harmonyx Concert- Music Through Time
Harmonyx presents Music Through Time
Program
American Quartet Mvt I. (string quartet arrangement) - Antonin Dvorak
Converging Spectrums - Kevin Day (local composer)
Far Away - Makoto Asari
Body of your Dream - Jacob ter Veldhuis
Introduction et Variations sur une Ronde Populaire - Gabriel Pierne
Intermission
Recitation Book Mvt I. - David Maslanka
The Minutebug Waltz - (Chopin/Waller) arr. David Stambler
Saxophone Quartet - Philip Glass
Quatour de Saxophones - Jun Nagao
Spring Mischief
Location: USD Shiley Theater
5998 Alcala Park Way, San Diego, CA 92110
Tickets $20 General, $15 Seniors, Students free