The Three Ms: Marsalis, Mozart, and Mendelssohn

The Nashville Symphony opens its new season at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center on Saturday, October 17, with The Three Ms: Marsalis, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. It's the first of three programs that anchor the orchestra's 2026/27 Classical Series, and it brings together three composers from very different eras and traditions in one night.

Leading the orchestra is Leonard Slatkin, who takes over as Music Director this season. The program opens with Mozart's Symphony No. 39, a late-period work that sits right in the classical tradition most people associate with the name. From there, the night shifts to Wynton Marsalis's Violin Concerto, a piece written by a man often called America's jazz ambassador and one that several different artists have since taken up. The evening closes with Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, a lighter, more atmospheric work based on Shakespeare's play.

The concerto puts the spotlight on violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, who's the first woman to win the Naumburg International Violin Competition since 1933 and a Sphinx Medal of Excellence honoree. She's performed at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Manhattan School of Music.

The concert is at the Laura Turner Concert Hall inside the Schermerhorn, the orchestra's home in downtown Nashville's SoBro district. The hall seats 1,844, so it's a full house for the season opener. The performance starts at 7:30 PM, and tickets start at $70 for the lowest-priced seat.