Young musicians ages 7 to 18 will step onto the stage as featured soloists with the Coronado Philharmonia Orchestra when it opens its 2026-27 season on Saturday, Oct. 24.
The concert, titled "Concertos and Symphonies," showcases winners of the orchestra's second annual Youth Concerto Competition. The young soloists will perform works by Mozart, Hummel and Saint-Saëns at 650 D Ave., according to the orchestra's events page. Doors open for a pre-concert talk at 6:30 p.m., with the performance starting at 7 p.m.
Among the winners is Orin O'Neal, 12, a seventh grader at Olive Peirce Middle School in Ramona. O'Neal won the Kinder Mozart division for ages 7 to 12 and will perform the third movement of Hummel's Trumpet Concerto, as first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune. He started playing trumpet at age 7 after receiving a pocket trumpet as a birthday gift and has studied with Tim Saeger, a professional trumpeter with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
"Since the students usually practice along to a video, the coolest part will be being able to play live with the orchestra," O'Neal told the Union-Tribune in September.
The competition awards winners in three age divisions: Kinder Mozart (ages 7-12, $250 prize), Young Beethoven (ages 13-15, $500) and Au Fait Bach (ages 16-18, $1,000). Each first-place winner receives a Gold Medal and the chance to solo with the orchestra at the season opener. Five finalists in each division submitted unedited video auditions, memorized a concerto movement and performed live before a panel of judges.
Winners were announced May 23 during the orchestra's "Honoring America" concert, after a live judging round on May 9 at the Winn Room in the Coronado Public Library, according to the orchestra's competition page.
Beyond the soloists, the evening program includes Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro Overture" and "Clarinet Concerto," Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony" and Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite No. 1." The orchestra performs under the baton of founder and conductor Osvaldo Mendoza.
Tickets range from $20 to $180. They are available on the orchestra's website.
The orchestra's 2026-27 season continues with holiday concerts on Saturday, Dec. 12, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, a Vivaldi and Piazzolla program on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2027, and an opera program on Saturday, May 15, 2027.
