Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra Celebrates Heroes & Legends for New 91st Performance Season

As the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra prepare to embark upon their 91^st Season the focus of their programming consists of a creative concoction of popular music guaranteed to appeal to a broad spectrum of musical tastes, blended with the formidable creations of classical composers that have endured the expanse of centuries and continue to resonate strongly throughout the mists of time.

Created as a project of the Saginaw Department of Parks and Recreation back in 1935, the SBSO is a fully professional ensemble which draws its members from throughout Michigan and beyond.  Since their inception the SBSO has showcased approximately 5,000 community performers, half of whom are younger musicians involved with the youth orchestra that have shared the stage with the Orchestra in performances over the years. And there is little doubt that since its creation the SBSO has established a proud legacy of providing quality musicianship, innovative programming, and excellent educational experiences for residents throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region and beyond.

“Our new season essentially breaks down into two different parts, explains Maestro Fouad Fakhouri. “The first part of the season happening in the fall and winter of 2026 is almost exclusively more on the Rock & Pop side of life, and then when we return in the winter of the new year in 2027 we have two concerts that are more on the traditional Classical side as we continue to build up larger audiences through programming that allows us to fill the house, which is one of the motivations for leaning more towards the world of contemporary Pops music.”

One of Fakhouri’s pivotal achievements in recent years has centered upon his success with bridging the generational gap between older and younger audiences engaged with Classical music by showcasing more creatively blended programming involving newer contemporary works with that of notable historic composers, adding the alignment of thematic similarities with compositions selected for each performance.

This upcoming 91^st Season continues to build upon that momentum, so without further ado, let’s break it down:

We Will Rock You: The Music of Queen & Journey • Sept. 26^th

An electrifying night of rock anthems sets off the SBSO’s 91^st season with a triad of musical forces joining together to add explosive coloration to the music of Queen & Journey in celebration of two of the most memorable bands in the lexicon of Rock Music.  Joining together with nationally renowned symphonic rock group Jeans ‘n Classics along with the Saginaw Choral Society, the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra will recreate the unforgettable creativity of these two legendary and iconic rock groups in a powerful celebration featuring hits that include, Don’t Stop Belivin’, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Anyway You Want It, Don’t Stop Me Now, Bohemian Rhapsody, and many more.

“Jeans & Classics is a group that specializes in performing the music of Queen & Journey and are a completely formed Tribute Rock band seasoned in the music, which they can perform with the orchestra behind them,” explains Fakhouri. “We’ll have up to 38 orchestra musicians backing them up, and then we also will have the Saginaw Choral Society collaborating and supporting us on a few of the featured songs.”

Halloween at the Symphony • October 29^th

Create your favorite costume and join the SBSO for a thrilling evening of musical magic, mystery, and adventure that is perfect for the entire family. With musical treats featuring fun favorites and memorable music from blockbuster films including Wicked, The Avengers, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jurassic Park, and more, this festive concert promises spine-tingling suspense, heroic adventures, and a night of chills, thrills, and spectacular symphonic entertainment.

“Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, which is typically when we perform our concerts, but The Temple was not available on that night this year, so we moved the date to a Thursday evening instead,” explains Fouad. “We wanted to create a concert designed around the holiday so I programmed many pieces around the idea that audiences can come and attend the concert, dress up in Halloween costumes, and have more of an experience than simply attending a typical concert event.”

“We have two pieces I’m very excited about, one is written by a young American composer called Cuong that is titled Extraordinarily Fancy and leans more towards the Classical side of music, but is a recently written piece,” notes Fakhouri. “It’s going to be performed by two of our principal oboe players and should offer something quite different and exciting.”

Holiday Harmony Annual Pops Concert • December 8

Celebrate the season with one of the Great Lakes Bay Region’s most cherished holiday traditions. The SBSO will open the evening with beloved holiday favorites filling The Temple Theatre with warmth, joy, and festivities, while in the second half of the concert The Saginaw Bay Youth Orchestra will join their professional SBSO counterparts side-by-side on stage for an inspiring cross-generational celebration of community, mentorship, and music. Together they will perform additional holiday classics along with a selection of timeless masterworks, creating a memorable evening for audiences of all ages.

“In recent years we’ve showcased different guest singers and artists at our Holidays Pops concert, however this year we decided to focus upon collaborating with our Youth Orchestra,” explains Fakhouri. “This will be our traditional holiday pops concert where the orchestra will perform holiday classics during the first part of the show; and then the Youth Orchestra will be showcased during the second half.”

Passion & Power • February 6^th

Internationally acclaimed Grammy Award winning pianist Sergie Babayan joins the SBSO for Rachmaninoff’s breathtaking Rhapsody on a Teme of Paganini, one of the most beloved and virtuosic works for piano and orchestra. Audiences will recognize its famous 18^th Variation, immortalized in the romantic film Somewhere in Time, filmed on Mackinac Island. 

This program also features Anna Clyne’s evocative Restless Oceans – a vivid musical portrait of the sea – and concludes with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 – a sweeping masterpiece of power, beauty, and triumph. Grom cinematic romance to dazzling virtuosity and orchestral grandeur,  Passion & Power promises an unforgettable musical journey.

“This performance will offer a rich experience as audience members will recognize the Rachmaninov piece from the film Somewhere in Time, which was filmed on Mackinac Island and is used as a musical theme throughout that movie, relates Fakhouri. “The Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 is a master work that is seldom performed but is a terrific piece of music. He is really known for two very famous symphonies – his First Symphony, which is a very short work; and then this piece of music which is a broader 45-minute work and requires tremendous concentration and focus from the musicians, in addition to featuring many musicians within the piece as soloists.  Technically, it’s quite a difficult work but is also a pleasurable experience to perform.”

“Another piece on this program that I’m excited about is written by a woman composer named Anna Clyne called Restless Oceans. It’s a short pieced yet is punctuated by the orchestra stomping and screaming throughout the piece, which exemplifies a restless ocean very creatively.”

Eroica – April 24^th

The season concludes with a celebration of musical brilliance and passion with Bartok’s vibrant Romanian Folk Dances opening the program with colorful rhythms and infectious energy inspired by Eastern European folk traditions. 

The spotlight then turns to the SBSO’s own Concertmaster, Sonia Lee, who’s artistry and leadership have become a hallmark of the orchestra’s performances. She will be featured as soloist in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, the beloved “Turkish Concerto’, a work of elegance and charm. 

The evening culminates with Beethoven’s revolutionary Symphony No. 3, Eroica – an uplifting and deeply moving bold masterpiece that forever changed the landscape of musical history. This season finale will celebrate the artistry of the SBSO and the enduring power of great music.

In describing the season finale, Fakhouri starts out by noting how Beethoven’s Symphony No 3, Eroica is one of the composer’s most popular symphonies and a monumental work. “Everyone knows the Fifth Symphony, which we performed last season; but Eroica is one where people who know classical or symphonic music appreciate how pivotal a work it truly is.”

“This is the piece that ushered in the Romantic age of music in the sense that entire era of romanticism in music was precipitated by this one composition, almost like seismic activities when you see a fault line before an earthquake,” reflects Fakhouri. “This is that fault line where things moved from classicism to romanticism.”

“As for the Romanian Folk Dances, Bartok is a composer I have a strong affinity for. I love his music and this is a shorter work that gives the audience an idea of his music without going into too much depth.  The beautiful think about Bartok is that he was one of those composers in the early 1900s who realized a lot of the folk tunes from Eastern Europe were being lost as technology started to seep through the cultures of Hungary and Romania. They were losing a lot of that traditional folk music, so he took it upon himself to make recordings of it when recording was in its infancy and go into villages and record this music by people who weren’t necessarily professional musicians but had learned it and passed it on from father to son and mother to daughter over the generations. He notated that music and then incorporated it into his own works for the orchestra.”

“We’ll also be featuring Mozart’s Violin Concerto performed by our concert master Sonia Lee, who I’ve wanted to feature for a long time. She’s a terrific violinist and before moving to Michigan she studied at Julliard and performed with the Toronto Symphony as a member of that orchestra. Plus, she participated as a violin player at one point in time on the show America’s Got Talent.”

To purhcase tickets or learn more please visit saginawbayorchestra.com.