We are a community of musicians who gather together to rehearse and perform the world's greatest music.
The Great Woods Symphony Orchestra is a 60-piece college-community ensemble based at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. Our mission is to provide an opportunity for musicians of all kinds to experience the excitement and joy of playing in an orchestra. We are comprised of members of the general public as well as Wheaton students, faculty, and staff.
SPRING 2025 CONCERT!
JOIN US NEXT FALL!
Experience the thrill of playing orchestral music in a fun and supportive environment! Membership is open to members of the public as well Wheaton students. No orchestral experience is necessary, and membership is free. Click here for more information.
SYMPHONY UNDER THE STARS
Our annual free outdoor concert. Join us on THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2025, at 7 pm, in the President’s Garden.
RECENT CONCERTS
More About Us
We routinely collaborate within nationally-prominent artists. In recent seasons we have performed along with Grammy-winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, violinist/composer Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), multi-media artist DJ Spooky, violinist Victor Romanul of the Boston Symphony, trombonist Achilles Liarmakopoulos of the Canadian Brass, and guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan. We also frequently perform with Wheaton faculty soloists and student winners of out Concerto-Aria Competition.
We are committed to performing a broad repertoire of music from around the world, especially music by composers from groups traditionally under-represented on orchestra programs. Almost 50% of our programming consists of music by women and BIPOC composers. Recent repertoire has include Margaret Bonds’ “Montgomery” Variations, Florence Price’s “The Mississippi River”, Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte”, William Grant Still’s “Danzas da Panama”, Alvin Singleton’s “Miaki Kumi”, and Stella Sung’s “Loco-motion.”
Recent performances of standard orchestral masterworks have included Tchaikovsky's Symphony no. 5, Gershwin’s American in Paris, Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, Copland’s Rodeo, Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, Beethoven's Symphony no. 5, Haydn’s Symphony no. 44; concertos by Mozart, Piazzolla, Grieg, Beethoven, and Bach; plus overtures and suites by composers ranging from Mendelssohn to Scott Joplin to John Williams.
The GWSO also performs an annual summer concert, Symphony Under the Stars, which is held outdoors in the President’s Garden on Main Street. This is a fun pops concert featuring a wide variety of music. Click here for video from the 2022 concert featuring soprano Brianna Robinson, tenor Natan Chalem ‘23, and rapper Elijah Akindolie ‘22.
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Fall 2020 Speakers Series on Music and Social Justice
During the fall 2020 semester, the orchestra presented the GWSO Speakers Series, which featured public presentations by musicians working at the intersections of music and social justice. You can read more about the series here, and check out out the roster of inspiring presenters here.
Scroll down for posters from past concerts.
