Santa Barbara Chamber Players are opening their 2026 season on Saturday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church. The program will be conducted by Daniel Gee and will feature cellist Jakub Omsky as soloist.
Gee serves as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Westmont College, where he leads the College Choir and Chamber Singers, and is Music Director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. Gee earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the USC Thornton School of Music before becoming a conductor, composer, and educator.
The season opener will offer an evening of music spanning from Romantic-era orchestral writing to the dramatic intensity of 20th-century Russia and the timeless elegance of the classical period. The program will feature music by Fanny Hensel, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
The program starts with Hensel’s Overture in C major. Written around 1830-32, it is Hensel’s only surviving work for orchestra alone and remained largely unknown until its eventual publication in the 20th century.
The centerpiece is Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 107, featuring Omsky. Composed in 1959, its virtuosic cello writing combines intensity, lyricism, rhythmic drive, and dark humor.
Omsky, a prodigy born in Warsaw, Poland, has performed extensively in the United States and Europe, with appearances at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West.
The evening concludes with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 500. Completed in 1788, its restless energy and dramatic G-minor character have made it one of Mozart’s most celebrated symphonies.
The event is on Saturday, October 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (909 N. La Cumbre Rd.). General admission is $30 and 18 and younger is free. For tickets and more information, visit sbchamberplayers.org.
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