FORTE: Music that tells a story | Arts And Entertainment

As the year winds down, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra is only just getting warmed up. More than half of the 2025–2026 Let’s Dance season still lies ahead. Each concert this season includes a work by Strauss Jr., the composer who gave the world its most iconic waltzes, however our programming goes far beyond ballroom sparkle.

This year, YSO has been exploring how music depicts the world around us—sometimes literally, sometimes emotionally and sometimes through storytelling. We began the season with a walk in the woods at September’s concert, “Tales from the Vienna Woods,” pairing Strauss Jr.’s ode to the Austrian forest with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and a contemporary tribute to the national parks by Jill Haley. October swept audiences along European waterways with “From the Danube to the Moldau,” featuring Strauss’s “Blue Danube,” Duke Ellington’s “The River” and Smetana’s musical portrait of the Vltava River.

Now, as we head into the new year, another thread emerges with programmatic music—pieces that tell a story or paint a picture. Programmatic music differs from the “music for music’s sake” style that was perfected by composers like Mozart and Brahms, who composed lush soundscapes for the purpose of musical beauty, and not necessarily a story.

In the new year, the Orchestra will continue the examination of inseparable story and sound, offering audiences an experience that blends narrative, imagination and music into one.

January’s “Winter Moons and Appalachian Spring” is a perfect example. Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” (written first as a ballet, then a suite for orchestra) follows a young pioneer couple preparing for their wedding in the Pennsylvania hills. Its open, airy harmonies evoke sunlight, fields and the quiet optimism of a new life beginning. Sharing the program is a contemporary ballet work by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, a Chickasaw composer whose work draws on Indigenous legends and parables.

In February, “Carmen Meets Beethoven” offers portraits of strong, unforgettable women. Beethoven’s Fidelio Overture features a female heroine as the star of his one and only opera—a woman who disguises herself to rescue her imprisoned husband. Bizet’s Carmen Suites give us perhaps the most famous opera melodies of all-time, a bold and passionate protagonist who finds herself in a tragic love triangle. A contemporary work by composer Nancy Ives adds a fascinating twist, telling the story of the mystery recipient of Beethoven’s famous “Immortal Beloved” letters. Even better, the piece was written for and features our own concertmaster Denise Dillenbeck as soloist—a chance to see one of our orchestra’s leaders step into the spotlight.

Then in March comes a whirlwind of fantastical adventure with “Don Quixote.” Strauss’s symphonic tone poem turns the orchestra into a storybook; the solo cello becomes Don Quixote himself, full of grand, heroic gestures, while the solo viola stands in for Sancho Panza, his earnest and rather simple-minded companion. The music vividly depicts scenes from the novel—galloping horses, swirling windmills, even bleating sheep—giving listeners everything they need to follow along without a single word being spoken. De Falla’s “Three-Cornered Hat,” a story ballet, rounds out the program with color, humor and Spanish flair.

The beauty of programmatic music is that it offers two experiences at once—beautiful music and a story. You can study up beforehand if you like, but you certainly don’t have to prepare in order to have a good time; the YSO provides live program notes projected during each performance, guiding listeners through the action in real time, so you can identify the bleating sheep, heartbreak and galloping horses yourself.

With so many musical tales yet to be told, the second half of the “Let’s Dance” season promises adventure, romance and folklore. We hope that you will join us, settle into your seat and let the orchestra score these memorable stories and lead you somewhere new.

• Ella Kim is Marketing Manager of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra.