Anne Akiko Meyers Joins the Modesto Symphony Orchestra for Márquez’s Fandango
Also featuring the music of Margaret Bonds and Rimsky-Korsakov
The Modesto Symphony Orchestra (MSO), led by Music Director Nicholas Hersh<www.modestosymphony.org/biographies/nicholas-hersh>, will perform Scheherazade<www.modestosymphony.org/season-calendar/feb26-cl3> & Márquez’s<www.modestosymphony.org/season-calendar/feb26-cl3> Fandango<www.modestosymphony.org/season-calendar/feb26-cl3> this February 13 & 14, 2026 at 7:30 pm at the Gallo Center for the Arts. The program will open with selections from Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations. Then the MSO will be joined by esteemed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers<www.modestosymphony.org/biographies/anne-akiko-meyers> for Arturo Márquez’s Fandango. The program will conclude with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
“It is difficult to put into words how excited I am for our upcoming performances of Arturo Márquez’s Fandango with violin superstar Anne Akiko Meyers,” says Music Director Nicholas Hersh. “Not only does Anne bring such vibrant and thrilling artistry to the stage, she also is the originator and dedicatee of this astounding concerto for violin and orchestra infused with the irresistible dance rhythms of the composer’s native Mexico. Combine this with the kaleidoscopic orchestral colors of Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliant Scheherazade, and you have an evening filled with unforgettable, virtuoso music. If you choose just one Modesto Symphony concert to attend this season, this would be the one I’d pick!”
Anne Akiko Meyers premiered Fandango with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021. Their 2022 performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall went on to receive two Latin GRAMMY• Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. Anne has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras and this will be her fourth performance with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.
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Modesto Symphony Orchestra: Scheherazade & Márquez’s Fandango<www.modestosymphony.org/season-calendar/feb26-cl3> – Passionate Dances & Powerful Stories
Friday, February 13, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 14, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Nicholas Hersh, conductor
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin
Program:
Margaret Bonds: Selections from Montgomery Variations
Arturo Márquez: Fandango
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Gallo Center for the Arts, Mary Stuart Rogers Theater
1000 I Street, Modesto
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Tickets:
Pricing: $23-$103
$15 student tickets are available in-person at the Gallo Center Ticket Office with a valid Student ID.
Ticketing Information:
Tickets are available online through ModestoSymphony.org or through the Gallo Center for the Arts Ticket Office at (209) 338-2100.
Gallo Center Ticket Office Hours: Monday through Friday 10:00am-6:00pm / Saturday 12:00pm-6:00pm
Group Prices available: Groups of 10+ receive a 15% discount on tickets. Call (209) 338-5064 for more information.
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Artist Biographies
NICHOLAS HERSH,<www.modestosymphony.org/biographies/nicholas-hersh> conductor
Nicholas Hersh is Music Director of the Modesto Symphony, having been appointed in August 2023. Across the country, Nicholas has earned critical acclaim for his innovative programming and natural ability to connect with musicians and audiences alike, and he was the unanimous choice of the search committee in Modesto. In addition to his work in Modesto, Nicholas was named Principal Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Academy, the BSO’s celebrated program for adult amateur musicians.
Hersh’s 2025-26 season includes his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic and returns to the Houston and Colorado Symphonies, plus engagements with the Florida Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, and Tucson Symphony.
His 2024-25 season included engagements with the Nashville, Madison, Omaha, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras; and the Florida and Apollo Orchestras. He continues to enjoy a regular relationship with the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Recent engagements include the Detroit, Grand Rapids, National, New World, North Carolina, Phoenix, Portland (ME), Richmond, Utah, and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestras; Louisiana and Rochester Philharmonics; and the Sarasota Orchestra.
Over a remarkable tenure as Associate Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Hersh created the BSO Pulse series, through which he brought together indie bands and orchestral musicians in unique collaborations; he led the BSO in several subscription weeks, and concerts in and around Baltimore; and he directed the BSO’s educational and family programming. Hersh also maintains a close relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra, leading concerts throughout Washington, D.C. He stepped in to replace an indisposed Yan Pascal Tortelier, on subscription, to great acclaim.
Hersh is frequently in demand as an arranger and orchestrator, with commissions from orchestras around the globe for adaptations of everything from classical solo and chamber music to popular songs. His orchestration of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata Op. 69 was premiered by the Philharmonie Zuidnederland in January 2022, while his symphonic arrangement of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues to see worldwide success as a viral YouTube hit. He also serves as arranger and editor for the James P. Johnson Orchestra Edition.
Hersh grew up in Evanston, Illinois and started his musical training as a cellist. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from Stanford University and a Master’s Degree in Conducting from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Hersh is also a two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award. Nicholas lives in Philadelphia with his wife, son, and two cats, and in his free time enjoys cooking and baking for family and friends.
ANNE AKIKO MEYERS,<www.modestosymphony.org/biographies/anne-akiko-meyers> violin
Anne Akiko Meyers, one of the world’s most esteemed musicians, is a GRAMMY® Award winning violinist, recognized as a muse and champion of many of today’s most important composers. Since her teens, Anne has performed around the world as soloist with leading orchestras, in recital and recorded more than 40 releases, which have become staples of classical music radio and streaming platforms.
Anne has been called “the Wonder Woman of commissioning” by The Strad and worked closely with some of the most important composers of the last half century, including Arvo Pärt (Estonian Lullaby), Einojuhani Rautavaara (Fantasia, his final complete work), John Corigliano (cadenzas for the Beethoven Violin Concerto; Lullaby for Natalie), Arturo Márquez (Fandango), Philip Glass (New Chaconne), Michael Daugherty (Blue Electra) Mason Bates and Adam Schoenberg (violin concertos), Billy Childs, Jakub Ciupiński, Jennifer Higdon, Morten Lauridsen, Wynton Marsalis, Somei Satoh, Joseph Schwantner, and Eric Whitacre (The Pacific Has No Memory, Seal Lullaby) performing world premieres with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Helsinki, Hyogo, Leipzig, London, Lyon, and New Zealand.
Anne’s recording of Fandango, a live performance with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, received two Latin GRAMMY® Awards: Best Classical Album and Best Contemporary Composition. Fandango was premiered in 2021 at The Hollywood Bowl, and has been performed over 40 times with 16 different orchestras around the world since.
In the 2024-25 season, Anne will premiere Eric Whitacre’s, The Pacific Has No Memory, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and performs with the Cincinnati Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Sarasota Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, and Vancouver Symphony. Naxos will release Blue Electra, Michael Daugherty’s Violin Concerto inspired by Amelia Earhart, commissioned by Anne, and recorded with David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony in April 25′. Platoon releases Beloved, a requiem by Billy Childs, alongside works by Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre, with Grant Gershon and the Los Angeles Master Chorale in May 25′ for Mother’s Day and the Philip Glass Violin Concerto No. 1 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Chaconne, a new work written by Philip for Anne, and Echorus with Aubree Oliverson and the Colburn Academy Virtuosi, to be released for Father’s Day, June 25′.
Highlights from Anne’s 2023-24 season included performances of the Philip Glass Violin Concerto No.1 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Prague Philharmonia; the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on its U.S. tour; the world premiere of Billy Childs’s requiem In The Arms of the Beloved, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a popular appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series, and Artistic Director at the Laguna Beach Music Festival, where she performed several world premieres including New Chaconne, a new work Philip Glass composed for her.
Recent highlights included appearances with the L.A. Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, and on tour marking the L.A. Phil’s return to Carnegie Hall in over 32 years and at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. In 2022, Anne premiered Blue Electra, a new violin concerto by Michael Daugherty, which received massive critical acclaim at The Kennedy Center with Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra.
The violinist’s first national television appearances were on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, at age 11, followed by performances that include Evening At Pops with John Williams, CBS Sunday Morning, Great Performances, Countdown with Keith Olbermann (in a segment that was the third most popular story of that year), The Emmy Awards, and The View. John Williams chose Anne to perform the theme from Schindler’s List for a Great Performances PBS telecast, and Arvo Pärt invited her to be his guest soloist at the opening ceremony concerts of his new center and concert hall in Estonia.
Krzysztof Penderecki selected Anne to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the 40th Pablo Casals Festival with the Montreal Symphony, which was broadcast on A&E. Her recording of Somei Satoh’s Birds in Warped Time II was used by architect Michael Arad for his award-winning design submission, which today has become The World Trade Center Memorial in lower Manhattan.
Other career highlights include a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto at the Australian Bicentennial Concert for an audience of 750,000 in Sydney Harbour; performances for the Emperor and Empress Akihito of Japan; for Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in a Museumplein Concert with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; and “The Star-Spangled Banner” at T-Mobile Park in Seattle and Dodger Stadium. She was profiled on NPR’s Morning Edition with Linda Wertheimer and All Things Considered with Robert Siegel, and she curated “Living American” on Sirius XM Radio’s Symphony Hall.
Anne has been featured in commercials and advertising campaigns including Anne Klein, shot by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz; Northwest Airlines; DDI Japan; and TDK; and was the inspiration for the main character’s career path in the novel The Engagements, by the popular author J. Courtney Sullivan. She collaborated with children’s book author and illustrator Kristine Papillon on Crumpet the Trumpet, appearing as the character Violetta the violinist, and featured in a documentary about legendary radio personality Jim Svejda. Anne has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including jazz icons Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis; avant-garde musician Ryuichi Sakamoto; electronic music pioneer Isao Tomita;pop-era act Il Divo; and singer, Michael Bolton.
Anne was born in San Diego and grew up in Southern California, where she and her mother traveled eight hours, round trip, from the Mojave Desert to Pasadena for lessons with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld at the predecessor of the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Anne moved to New York at the age of 14 to study at The Juilliard School with the legendary violin instructor Dorothy DeLay, and with Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir; she signed with management at 16; and recorded her debut album of the Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos with the RPO at Abbey Road Studios at 18. She has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Distinguished Alumna Award, and an Honorary Doctorate from The Colburn School. She serves on the Board of Trustees of The Juilliard School, the Dudamel Foundation, was recently honored by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame.
Anne performs on Larsen Strings with the Ex-Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù, dated 1741, considered by many to be the finest-sounding violin in existence.
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The Modesto Symphony Orchestra is a Resident Company of The Gallo Center for the Arts
The DoubleTree Hotel is the official hotel of the MSO.
