2025-26 Season Opener Concert | The Philharmonic Orchestra Performs Wagner, Elgar, Shankavaram, Borne and Borodin

The San Jose Youth Symphony’s Philharmonic Orchestra, under the artistic leadership of Music Director and Conductor Yair Samet, presents its 2025-26 Season Opener Concert to be held on Sunday, November 30, 2025, 5 pm, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Avenue, San Jose, CA 95116.

The orchestra will open with Wagner’s splendorous and ravishing Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, along with the world premiere of an orchestral work, Leela, by our orchestra’s concertmaster and composer,  Saarthak Shankavaram. The orchestra will close the concert with Borodin’s exciting Polovetsian Dances. 

This concert will also feature two winners from last season’s 2025 Young Artists’ Competition, proudly sponsored by the San Jose Symphony Foundation*. Outstanding young soloists, Elspeth Luu, will perform Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto in E minor, and Claire Kim, will perform Borne’s Carmen Fantasy for Flute and Orchestra. Elspeth Luu | Claire Kim | Saarthak Shankavaram

The San Jose Youth Symphony (SJYS) is one of the oldest and finest youth orchestras on the West Coast of the U.S. Founded over seven decades ago as part of the former San Jose Symphony, SJYS has a rich tradition of musical performance and education.

The musicians of SJYS, all school-age youth, are chosen from more than 650 applicants through our annual auditions. The SJYS comprises 12 distinct performing ensembles: two full orchestras, a chamber orchestra, two flute choirs, two string ensembles, as well as winds, brass, saxophone, percussion, and jazz ensembles.