Join us as we celebrate the human voice and bring the world’s great vocal artists to beautiful Tucson, Arizona.

The Tucson Desert Song Festival provides a world-class experience for music enthusiasts and novices alike—of enjoyment, education, and interaction with acclaimed classical voices singing with some of Tucson’s leading performing arts groups.

It’s the Tucson Desert Song Festival—a unique blend of glorious singing in orchestral, chamber, choral, and solo formats along with related lectures and master classes in the warmth and charm of Arizona’s renowned Sonoran Desert resort region.

Schedule of Events:

Friday, January 10, 2025

7:00 pm: Tucson Baroque Music Festival: All Roads Lead To…

Vocal and instrumental works by G.F. Handel, featuring soprano Amanda Forsythe.

American soprano Amanda Forsythe, celebrated for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic, is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Les Talens Lyriques, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Opera Prima, Pacific Musicworks, Early Music Vancouver, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Her début solo album of Handel arias, The Power of Love with Apollo’s Fire, was recently followed with the highly praised album Heavenly Bach. Her discography includes more than 25 albums and DVDs, many of them premiere recordings.

Location: Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Saturday, January 11, 2025

3:00 pm: Tucson Baroque Music Festival: Bach’s Circle

Music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, featuring bass-baritone Dashon Burton and Telemann’s Flute and Recorder Concerto.

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time GRAMMY Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the US and Europe. Highlights of his 2023/24 season included a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony and Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony. Burton also performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, sang Handel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and appeared at Tanglewood and Caramoor in critically acclaimed performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Philharmonia Baroque in the summer of 2023.

Location: Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Sunday, January 12, 2025

3:00 pm: Tucson Baroque Music Festival: Divine Love

An exploration of Bach in the Church and Garden, featuring Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and Cantata BWV 32 Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen with soprano Amanda Forsythe and bass-baritone Dashon Burton.

American soprano Amanda Forsythe, celebrated for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic, is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Les Talens Lyriques, the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Opera Prima, Pacific Musicworks, Early Music Vancouver, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Three-time GRAMMY Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has established a vibrant career appearing regularly throughout the US and Europe. Recent highlights include performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony, Copland’s Old American Songs with the New World Symphony, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, and Handel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Location: Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Thursday, January 16, 2025

7:00 pm: Recital: Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone with Adam Nielsen, piano

Acclaimed Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green makes his Tucson debut with a program of works by Mahler, Liszt, Schubert, Wolf, and Mussorgsky. Named “the real showstopper” by The New York Times, two-time GRAMMY Award-winning vocalist Ryan Speedo Green has quickly established himself as an artist of international demand at the world’s leading opera houses. Distinguished collaborative artist, soloist, répétiteur, and coach Adam Nielsen joins him at the piano.

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Friday, January 17, 2025

7:00 pm & 9:00 pm: Dominique Eade with pianist Armen Donelian

Dominique Eade is an extraordinary vocalist, composer, improviser, and RCA recording artist. Poetic and passionate, Dominique blends musical virtuosity with a songwriter’s straightforward emotional sensibility. She creates music that has garnered critical acclaim, earned the admiration of her peers, inspired audiences, and served as a creative signpost for generations of singers. Joining Eade at the piano is performing artist, composer, and Fulbright Scholar Armen Donelian. Since 1975, Donelian has distinguished himself in 25 countries as a featured solo pianist, band leader, and educator. His distinctive music blends diverse influences from his Armenian origin, classical technique, and his association with many of the biggest names in Jazz.

Location: The Century Room

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

3:00 pm: Art Song Lecture by Nigel Foster

Nigel Foster is the founder, director, and pianist of the London Song Festival, an annual event promoting song repertoire. In addition to featuring internationally known artists, the Festival acts as a major showcase for young up-and-coming singers. Nigel’s musical interests range from the baroque to contemporary music, though his main love and passion is the song repertoire. Born in London, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his teachers were Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson, and Iain Burnside. At both the Academy and the Guildhall, he won every prize and award available for piano accompaniment and has since been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Free Admission

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Friday, January 24, 2025

7:00 pm: Caity Gyorgy with her piano trio Anthony D’Alessandro, piano, Thomas Hainbuch, bass, & Jacob Wutzke, drums

Caity Gyorgy is a two-time JUNO award-winning Canadian vocalist known for singing bebop and swing music. She has performed at jazz clubs and festivals across Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the USA and has worked and recorded with incredible musicians including Christine Jensen, Pat LaBarbera, Jocelyn Gould, Ira Coleman, Bryn Roberts, and Joe LaBarbera, to name a few. In addition to being a performer, Caity is an avid writer and composes songs in the style of the Great American Songbook. Her compositions have been sung by other vocalists around the world and have won multiple awards, including the Grand Prize in the jazz category of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Her most recent album, Hello! How Are You?, released in August 2024, features Caity accompanied by her regular piano trio with Anthony D’Alessandro on piano, Thomas Hainbuch on bass, and Jacob Wutzke on drums.

Location: The Century Room

7:30 pm: Mahler’s Third Symphony with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano

One of the brightest stars on the operatic stage and a Tucson favorite, internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to the TSO for a riveting performance of Mahler’s colossal third symphony. Organized over six movements, the work is the composer’s hymn to nature and one of his most complete musical statements. José Luis Gomez, conductor.

Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Saturday, January 25, 2025

3:00 pm: Recital: Kristin Dauphinais, mezzo-soprano with Nigel Foster, piano

Mezzo-soprano Kristin Dauphinais is highly regarded for her artistry and versatility. She has worked in a variety of genres including musical theater, opera, concert, oratorio, chamber music, and solo recitals. Her performing career has taken her throughout the United States as well as tours in Italy, China, and Australia and additional concert performances in Germany, Spain, Austria, and Luxembourg. Distinguished pianist and collaborative artist Nigel Foster is the founder and director of the London Song Festival, an annual event promoting song repertoire. Throughout his career, he has performed at major UK venues and has given concerts across Europe, Asia, the United States. This recital program will feature the song settings of American Poetess, Sara Teasdale (1884-1933).

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Sunday, January 26, 2025

2:00 pm: Mahler’s Third Symphony with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano

One of the brightest stars on the operatic stage and a Tucson favorite, internationally recognized mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke returns to the TSO for a riveting performance of Mahler’s colossal third symphony. Organized over six movements, the work is the composer’s hymn to nature and one of his most complete musical statements. José Luis Gomez, conductor.

Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

12:00 pm: New Directions In Song

Singers from the UA School of Music will present a recital of contemporary art song, featuring new trends and discoveries. Hosted by faculty artist and Chair of Vocal Studies Dr. Kristin Dauphinais.

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Saturday, February 1, 2025

2:00 pm: Puccini’s La Bohème

Giacomo Puccini’s beloved classic La Bohème transports you to the streets of 19th century Paris for one of the world’s most timeless and moving love stories, as sung by a distinguished cast featuring Caitlin Gotimer, Mimì; SeokJong Baek, Rodolfo; Benjamin Taylor, Marcello; Emma Marhefka, Musetta.; Peter Barber, Colline; and Yichen Xue, Schaunard. In the vibrant Latin Quarter, a romance ignites between the poet Rodolfo and beautiful but frail seamstress Mimì. With its exquisite melodies and stirring emotions, La Bohème continues to captivate audiences around the world. Immerse yourself in this unforgettable journey through the passions of youth and the bittersweet beauty of life.

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Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

2:00 pm & 7:30 pm: Mahler & Schumann with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano

Metropolitan Opera star Sasha Cooke will perform selections from Mahler’s five-song cycle based on the poems of Friedrich Rückert. The brilliant young composer Chelsea Komschlies’ new work, a TSO commission through the League of American Orchestras Toulmin Commissions Program, also has its world premiere. Maestro Gomez continues his Schumann cycle with the composer’s Symphony No. 3, the Rhenish, and Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful, rarely-played Ballade completes the program. This concert will be preceded by Concert Comments, a pre-concert talk beginning one hour before each performance.

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Location: Catalina Foothills High School

Sunday, February 2, 2025

2:00 pm: Mahler & Schumann with Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano

Metropolitan Opera star Sasha Cooke will perform selections from Mahler’s five-song cycle based on the poems of Friedrich Rückert. The brilliant young composer Chelsea Komschlies’ new work, a TSO commission through the League of American Orchestras Toulmin Commissions Program, also has its world premiere. Maestro Gomez continues his Schumann cycle with the composer’s Symphony No. 3, the Rhenish, and Coleridge-Taylor’s beautiful, rarely-played Ballade completes the program. This concert will be preceded by Concert Comments, a pre-concert talk beginning one hour before each performance.

Location: Catalina Foothills High School

Friday, February 14, 2025

7:00 pm: Winter Concert: From Tucson With Love, featuring a world premiere ballet choreographed by Chieko Imada to the music of Lalo Guerrero with vocalist Carlos Zapién & guitar trio Misael Barraza Díaz, Andrés Pantoja, & Diana Schaible

In celebration of Tucson’s 250th birthday, Associate Artistic Director Chieko Imada creates another exciting world premiere in partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival and Tucson Guitar Society. This vibrant new ballet features the music of legendary Tucsonan Lalo Guerrero, Father of Chicano music, performed live onstage with our dancers. Carlos Zapién, vocals. Misael Barraza Díaz, guitar. Andrés Pantoja, guitar. Diana Schaible, flute and guitar.

Additionally, the program features George Balanchine’s iconic ballet Rubies, choreographed to the dynamic music by Igor Stravinsky. This vivacious piece demonstrates his great love of America, the fast pace of life in New York City, and The Jazz Age. The balcony scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is brought to life through an exquisite pas de deux choreographed by Artistic Director Margaret Mullin.

Location: Leo Rich Theater

Saturday, February 15, 2025

2:00 pm & 7:00 pm: Winter Concert: From Tucson With Love, featuring a world premiere ballet choreographed by Chieko Imada to the music of Lalo Guerrero with vocalist Carlos Zapién & guitar trio Misael Barraza Díaz, Andrés Pantoja, & Diana Schaible

In celebration of Tucson’s 250th birthday, Associate Artistic Director Chieko Imada creates another exciting world premiere in partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival and Tucson Guitar Society. This vibrant new ballet features the music of legendary Tucsonan Lalo Guerrero, Father of Chicano music, performed live onstage with our dancers. Carlos Zapién, vocals. Misael Barraza Díaz, guitar. Andrés Pantoja, guitar. Diana Schaible, flute and guitar.

Additionally, the program features George Balanchine’s iconic ballet Rubies, choreographed to the dynamic music by Igor Stravinsky. This vivacious piece demonstrates his great love of America, the fast pace of life in New York City, and The Jazz Age. The balcony scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is brought to life through an exquisite pas de deux choreographed by Artistic Director Margaret Mullin.

Location: Leo Rich Theater

Sunday, February 16, 2025

2:00 pm: Winter Concert: From Tucson With Love, featuring a world premiere ballet choreographed by Chieko Imada to the music of Lalo Guerrero with vocalist Carlos Zapién & guitar trio Misael Barraza Díaz, Andrés Pantoja, & Diana Schaible

In celebration of Tucson’s 250th birthday, Associate Artistic Director Chieko Imada creates another exciting world premiere in partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival and Tucson Guitar Society. This vibrant new ballet features the music of legendary Tucsonan Lalo Guerrero, Father of Chicano music, performed live onstage with our dancers. Carlos Zapién, vocals. Misael Barraza Díaz, guitar. Andrés Pantoja, guitar. Diana Schaible, flute and guitar.

Additionally, the program features George Balanchine’s iconic ballet Rubies, choreographed to the dynamic music by Igor Stravinsky. This vivacious piece demonstrates his great love of America, the fast pace of life in New York City, and The Jazz Age. The balcony scene from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is brought to life through an exquisite pas de deux choreographed by Artistic Director Margaret Mullin.

Location: Leo Rich Theater

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

7:30 pm: SPA Trio featuring Susanna Phillips, soprano, Paul Neubauer, violin, & Anne-Marie McDermott, viola

Historic recordings of some of the great singers of yesteryear include numerous performances of salon songs that included an obbligato instrument. Some of these pairings included Enrico Caruso with Mischa Elman, John McCormack with Fritz Kreisler, Marian Anderson with William Primrose, Alma Gluck with her husband Efrem Zimbalist, as well as Bing Crosby and Jascha Heifetz. Susanna Phillips, soprano, Paul Neubauer, viola, and Anne-Marie McDermott, piano, continue this tradition with SPA. This trio of stellar artists first performed together in 2011 in Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, and have enjoyed exploring and performing songs that include an obbligato instrument.

Location: Leo Rich Theater

Friday, February 28, 2025

4:00 pm: The Tucson Spirit, The Love of Flight: An All-American Program featuring Blitzstein’s Airborne Symphony Suite, Coprland’s Lincoln Portrait, Thompson’s Testament of Freedom, & works by Bernstein, Weill, & Gershwin

Celebrate Tucson’s connections to the skies. The fascinating and rarely performed Airborne Symphony is the perfect piece to pay homage to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base—a world premiere of a new suite version focused on the exhilaration of flying and the miracle of flight itself. Beginning with the words “Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history…,” Copland’s Lincoln Portrait sets to music excerpts of Abraham Lincoln’s greatest documents. Too extensive to list, past luminary narrators range from Marian Anderson to Neil Armstrong, Barack Obama, Walter Cronkite, Danny Glover, Katherine Hepburn, Coretta Scott King, and Carl Sandburg. Randall Thompson’s Testament of Freedom is a setting of texts by Thomas Jefferson in a work created for the bicentennial of Jefferson’s birth. Works by Gershwin, Bernstein and Weill top off this All-American program.

Location: Valley Presbyterian Church, Green Valley

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

5:00 pm: The Creative Process: A discussion with violinist Joshua Bell, soprano Larisa Martínez, & composer John Corigliano

Join us for a lively discussion with celebrated American composer John Corigliano and the husband-wife duo of famed violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martínez about the world premiere of Corigliano’s new festival-commissioned song cycle. Hosted by George Hanson.

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

7:30 pm: Recital: Joshua Bell, violin & Larisa Martínez, soprano, featuring the world premiere of a new song cycle by John Corigliano

This recital program will feature the world premiere of a new song cycle by celebrated American composer John Corigliano, commissioned by the Tucson Desert Song Festival, for the husband-wife duo of famed violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Larisa Martínez. The piece reunites Corigliano and Bell, who became a household name after he performed Corigliano’s soundtrack for the 1998 film The Red Violin. Five years later, Corigliano, who won an Academy Award for the film, reworked the music into a concerto for Bell.

Location: UA School of Music, Crowder Hall

Thursday, April 3, 2025

7:00 pm: Recital: Stephen Costello, tenor with Anthony Manoli, piano

Stephen Costello has been hailed as ‘a prodigiously gifted singer whose voice makes an immediate impact’ (Associated Press). The Philadelphia-born tenor quickly established a reputation as a ‘first-class talent’ (Opera News) after coming to national attention in 2007, when, aged 26, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut on the company’s season-opening night. Two years later, Stephen won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award, and he has since appeared at many of the world’s most important opera houses and music festivals. Opera News noted in a recent double-page spread, “the all-American tenor” is now “at the top of his game.” This recital program will feature an enthralling mix of both songs and arias.

Location: UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall

Friday, April 4, 2025

7:30 pm: Carmina Burana with Ashley Fabian, soprano, Joseph Tancredi, tenor, & Octavio Moreno, baritone

Carl Orff’s singular and powerful work, bringing to life texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, comes to the stage with soloists Ashley Fabian, Joseph Tancredi, and Octavio Moreno plus the full might of the Tucson Symphony Chorus. Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, which pays tribute to the blue deer, a spiritual guide of the Huichol people of Mexico, is followed by Robert Muczynski’s Symphonic Memoir, premiered by the TSO in 1979 and the latest in the TSO’s exploration of this Tucson-based composer.

Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Sunday, April 6, 2025

2:00 pm: Carmina Burana with Ashley Fabian, soprano, Joseph Tancredi, tenor, & Octavio Moreno, baritone

Carl Orff’s singular and powerful work, bringing to life texts from the 11th and 12th centuries, comes to the stage with soloists Ashley Fabian, Joseph Tancredi, and Octavio Moreno plus the full might of the Tucson Symphony Chorus. Gabriela Ortiz’s Kauyumari, which pays tribute to the blue deer, a spiritual guide of the Huichol people of Mexico, is followed by Robert Muczynski’s Symphonic Memoir, premiered by the TSO in 1979 and the latest in the TSO’s exploration of this Tucson-based composer.

Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

6:30 pm: Silkroad Ensemble: Uplifted Voices with special guest Pura Fé

GRAMMY-winning Silkroad Ensemble brings together musicians globally to inspire collaboration and promote equity and justice in the world. Conceived by Yo-Yo Ma in 1988, Silkroad continues to break new ground with innovative music, cultural collaboration, and high-quality arts education under the leadership of visionary Artistic Director Rhiannon Giddens. In addition to this performance, members of the Ensemble will engage the Tucson community with a popup concert, vocal classes, and programs for high school students.

In Uplifted Voices, Silkroad shines a light on previously under-recognized voices from across the globe to change our perspective of the history and migration of music. Through a stunning collaboration of global instrumentation, Silkroad’s newest project champions women and non-binary members of the Silkroad Ensemble alongside special guest, Tuscarora/Taíno musician Pura Fé, to tell a musical journey that connects the music of indigenous North America to the World. Drawing inspiration from the folk and ancestral music of Japan, China, Armenia, Ireland, the Hebrides, and native populations across North America, Uplifted Voices brings together this collection of distinctive and powerful musical origins within a contemporary musical tapestry.

Location: Centennial Hall

Saturday, April 19, 2025

2:00 pm: Verdi’s Aida

The splendor of Egypt comes to life through this visually arresting, projection-based concert production of Verdi’s Aida in its first Arizona Opera performances in over a decade, with a stellar cast featuring Leah Hawkins, Aida; Jennifer Johnson Cano, Amneris; Limmie Pulliam, Radamès; Kidon Choi, Amonasro; Scott Conner, Ramfis; Emma Marhefka, Priestess; and Peter Barber, King of Egypt. Aida tells the story of forbidden love amidst political intrigue, as the looming shadow of war envelops the sands of Egypt, and princess Aida confronts the challenges posed by a web of love, loyalty, and betrayal.

Location: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall

Fest Date: January 10 - April 19, 2025

Locations:
The Century Room 311 E Congress St, Tucson, United States
Temple of Music and Art 330 S Scott Ave, Tucson, United States
Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S Church Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701
Leo Rich Theater, 260 S Church Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701
Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85719
Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St., Tucson, AZ 85719
UA School of Music, Holsclaw Hall 1017 N Olive Rd, Tucson, AZ, United States
Catalina Foothills High School 4300 E Sunrise Dr, Tucson, AZ, United States
Valley Presbyterian Church, Green Valley 2800 S Camino Del Sol, Green Valley, AZ, United States

Click here for more information.