Orange County native Michael Repper recalls attending a Pacific Symphony “Musical Mornings” concert when he was three and being enraptured by the music and the overall concert experience.
His grandmother insisted he start piano lessons, which launched a music career that took him from studying piano to being named conductor and music director of Ashland Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and the Northern Neck Orchestra of Virginia.
Now Repper, 35, has truly come full circle. He will be the guest conductor for four Pacific Symphony “Symphony in the Cities” concerts, including one in Newport Beach on Sunday, Aug. 9.
Repper already has an impressive discography. He won a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for his album “Works By Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman” with the New York Youth Symphony. It was the first album featuring a youth orchestra to win a Grammy Award in the Best Orchestral Performance category.
He also earned a Best Orchestral Performance Grammy nomination for his 2025 album “Coleridge-Taylor,” recorded with the National Philharmonic and violinist Curtis Stewart, which featured world premiere studio recordings of newly uncovered works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Repper had the opportunity to take conducting lessons while at OCSA, but credits growing up with Pacific Symphony as the spark that lit his career.
“Growing up in Orange County, my grandmother used to take me to Pacific Symphony almost every week when I was a kid, and especially to the family concerts,” recalled Repper during a recent phone interview from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia. “She was the one who noticed that once the orchestra started to play, I was locked in. It was really the Pacific Symphony that confirmed my love for music from a very young age. And so, now, to have the opportunity after 30-something years to come back and conduct the Symphony in the Cities concerts feels like a very full-circle moment for me. I’m very excited for it.”
Repper’s love for conducting came when he was eight years old and invited to study piano with a teacher in Australia.
“She used to host these concerts geared towards kids, and at these concerts, she actually would try to provide opportunities for kids,” said Repper. “Basically, I was handed a baton and told to go up and conduct some of Haydn’s Surprise Symphony, even though I didn’t absolutely know what I was doing. There was something that was so special in that moment. When I came back to the United States, my violin teacher was also a conductor, and so I asked him if I could take some of my violin lesson time and make it conducting instead, and within a short period of time we recognized just how much I loved conducting, and so I kind of fell into it when I was eight years old.”
At the Symphony in the Cities concert, Repper gives the kids in attendance a conducting lesson before the concert, and then the kids come to the stage during a Sousa march and they all conduct the music.
“When you do these concerts, you never know what young person you might reach. Maybe one of these kids at this concert will discover their love for conducting.”
The program for the Symphony in the Cities concerts includes audience favorites such as the theme from “Star Wars,” “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” by John Williams, music from “West Side Story,” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” including vocals on five songs by Kresley Figueroa.
“A lot of the pieces that we will play are pieces that everybody will be extremely familiar with, which won’t really take that much rehearsal time,” acknowledged Repper. “Some of the other ones are slightly less known. We will get one rehearsal the day before the first concert, but it’s completely manageable. It’s a matter of trusting the musicians. Pacific Symphony is a top-level ensemble, so you know it won’t take that much time. It’s just a matter of making everybody feel comfortable. And as a conductor, I think that’s the number one thing when you have a short turnaround time like this—making everybody feel empowered and making everybody feel comfortable. That’s when the music comes through.”
“It’s going to be very fun, and the music is all very engaging and exciting,” added Repper. “It’s a family environment. That’s what I get most excited about, the prospect that we might really inspire some young people. I think that is kind of the entire objective of professional music: what can we do to inspire the next generation?”
In addition to local audiences, Repper said friends and family from Orange County will be attending the concerts.
“People have been really excited since I started sharing that I would be coming home,” said Repper. “I grew up in Orange County until I was 18, and my family still lives in Orange County, and my friends from high school and everything. I’m excited to see them.”
The Symphony in the Cities at the Newport Beach Civic Center starts at 6 p.m. Audiences can pack a picnic, grab a lawn chair or blanket and gather the family for an evening of free music and outdoor summer fun.
A pre-concert Musical Playground starting at 5 p.m. and features interactive and hands-on activities for children, including crafts, a conducting clinic with Maestro Repper, and a drum circle. Plus, face painting and balloon animals.
Mad Dumplings and Italian Burger Grill food trucks will be on site.
Free parking is available in the Civic Center Structure (100 Civic Center Drive). Additional parking will be available across the street at the parking lot near 12 Corporate Plaza Drive. To park in the structure, please enter through the Avocado Avenue and Civic Center Drive entrance only.
Other Symphony in the Cities concerts will be held in Mission Viejo on August 8, Irvine on August 15, and Orange on August 16.
Visit www.pacificsymphony.org for more information.
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