The Naptown Philharmonic Orchestra has announced its 2026-2027 season, a five-concert lineup titled A Season of Song & Story that runs from September 2026 through June 2027 at venues across Annapolis. The season opens with a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and closes next June with a program blending orchestral and choral works, all while keeping tickets free for students of all ages.
According to Eye On Annapolis, the season kicks off September 19 at Maryland Hall with ¡Viva la Música! A Night of Fire & Flair, a program honoring Hispanic Heritage Month with works by George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Óscar Navarro, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Luis Hernández Alfonso, Alberto Ginastera, and Arturo Márquez. Soprano Colleen Daly is featured on the program, per the outlet's report. Concert tickets across the season cost $25 and are available at naptownphil.org, the outlet notes.
Music Director and Conductor Anna Binneweg, who has led the ensemble since 2009, framed the season's theme in a statement carried by the same outlet, saying music serves as one of humanity's most powerful ways to connect and share stories. She added that A Season of Song & Story invites audiences on a journey exploring narratives, melodies, and shared experiences. Binneweg is also a professor of music at Anne Arundel Community College, where she will mark 20 years on the faculty during the 2026-2027 academic year after relocating to the county in 2007 to join the school following conducting studies at SMU and Northwestern, according to the Severna Park Voice.
A Season Built Around Guest Artists and Student Soloists
The Halloween Spooktacular! follows on October 25 at Key Auditorium at St. John's College, drawing from The Planets, Wicked, How to Train Your Dragon, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Pictures at an Exhibition. That concert features the Marcolivia Duo and Michael Hughes, who serves as master of ceremonies, along with a costume contest open to all ages and the season announcement details.
Echoes of Love & Longing takes the stage February 21 at Maryland Hall, featuring violinist Irina Muresanu in a program of Johann Strauss, Amy Beach, Edward Elgar, Pablo de Sarasate, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It's Magic! Hits of the Hi-Fi Era arrives April 11, spotlighting music associated with Rosemary Clooney, Keely Smith, Eydie Gormé, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, and Doris Day. That show also features winners of the 2027 Young Artists Concerto Competition, giving student musicians a mainstage soloist role alongside the full orchestra. Vocalist Joan Ellison joins the orchestra for that performance as well.
The organization's Young Artists Competition auditions were held at Anne Arundel Community College in January 2026, with winners receiving $250 cash prizes and mainstage performance slots, according to the Naptown Philharmonic Orchestra. The program reflects the ensemble's broader educational mission, which also includes chamber ensemble recitals, auditioned student memberships, and donated master classes aimed at lowering barriers for young audiences and developing musicians.
Season Closes With Chorus, Choral Works in June
The season concludes June 5, 2027, at Maryland Hall with Landscapes of Radiance & Light, featuring the Naptown Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus, the Apex Arts Vocal Ensemble, and John O'Leary, who serves as master of ceremonies for the closing program. The concert includes Rossini's William Tell Overture, Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, Delius's In a Summer Garden, Elaine Hagenberg's Illuminare, and additional choral selections. Jeanne Kelly directs the Naptown Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus, while Lauren Walker directs the Apex Arts Vocal Ensemble.
Across the season, the orchestra features classical masterworks, contemporary selections, music from stage and screen, guest artists, young musicians, and choral performances, weaving together the range of programming that has defined the ensemble's approach to community classical music.
A Community Orchestra With Deep Local Roots
The Naptown Philharmonic traces its history to 2003, when it was founded as the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra by the late violinist and public school teacher Kathy Solano, according to the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County. The ensemble rebranded in 2023 to honor Annapolis's Naptown nickname and sharpen its community focus. It operates as a hybrid orchestra, bringing together professional musicians, military players, private and public school teachers, accomplished amateurs, and local student apprentices, per the South County Concert Association.
To secure its long-term future, the orchestra established an Endowed Agency Fund with the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County in 2020, preserving donations the board collected over five years. For fiscal year 2026, the group received $7,720 in state grant funding from the Maryland State Arts Council to support its operating season, a modest but notable line of public support for a community-based nonprofit.
Most performances take place at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts at 801 Chase Street, a former Annapolis High School building that now houses an 800-plus-seat main auditorium and has served as the city's multidisciplinary arts hub since 1979, according to Wikipedia. Beyond its own concerts, the Naptown Philharmonic shares the local orchestral landscape with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, a professional ensemble that kicks off a milestone 65th season in September 2026 with free outdoor park concerts drawing more than 7,000 attendees.
Binneweg's conducting reach extends beyond Annapolis: she also serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic in Alexandria, Virginia, actively leading ensembles across both the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan regions, according to Voyage Virginia Magazine. For Annapolis-area families, though, the season's defining feature may be its accessibility: students of all ages get free admission to every mainstage concert, part of an educational push that also includes chamber recitals and master classes donated to the community.
