Orchestra Miami opens its 20th anniversary season Sunday, Nov. 8, with a concert at Pinecrest Gardens that pairs Beethoven's Triple Concerto with two works by Mozart, including the very piece that launched the ensemble two decades ago. Founder and artistic director Elaine Rinaldi will play piano, joined by concertmaster Mei Mei Luo on violin and principal cellist Aaron Merritt on cello for the Beethoven showcase.
According to miamiherald.com, the Nov. 8 concert will feature 38 orchestra musicians alongside the three soloists. Rinaldi founded Orchestra Miami in 2006, and the Miami Herald reports she will again share the stage with Luo and Merritt, playing piano in Beethoven's concerto.
A Nod to Where It All Began
The evening is built around a sense of full-circle symmetry. The program will open with Mozart's Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro,” the same music Rinaldi chose for Orchestra Miami's first performance back in 2006, per the Miami Herald's reporting. It's a deliberate musical tribute to the ensemble's beginnings, bookending two decades with the same notes that started it all.
The concert will also include Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, written in 1788, rounding out a program that leans on two of classical music's most enduring composers. The official listing from orchestramiami.org confirms the pairing of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with two landmark Mozart works for the season opener.
Beethoven's Triple Concerto Takes Center Stage
Composed between 1803 and 1804, Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 is built around a distinctive structure that treats violin, cello and piano as equal partners rather than a single soloist backed by orchestra. That format gives Luo, Merritt and Rinaldi each a prominent voice across the piece, a fitting centerpiece for a season meant to celebrate the players who have carried the orchestra through 20 years.
Looking Ahead to the Rest of the Season
The anniversary season is scheduled to run through April 2027, when it concludes with a family-friendly performance of David Chesky's one-act children's opera, “The Mice War,” according to the same Miami Herald report. One familiar offering won't be part of the lineup this time around, though: the orchestra's Discover Miami Through Music series is taking a season off due to scheduling conflicts, with Rinaldi telling the outlet she hopes it returns for the 2027-28 season.
Sunday's concert takes place at Pinecrest Gardens, located at 11000 SW 57th Avenue in Pinecrest, Florida, with the performance set to begin at 6 p.m.
