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# ENTERTAINMENT BRIEFS Santa Monica Symphony to play a free family show
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/entertainment-briefs-santa-monica-symphony-to-play-a-free-family-show/
- Published: 2005-12-02T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:15:35.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Entertainment, Main St, #archive-import

*By Daily Press staff*

The Santa Monica Symphony will present an evening of music for the whole family in a free concert on Sunday, Dec. 11, under the baton of music director and conductor Allen Robert Gross. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, on Main Street just north of Pico Boulevard.

The program includes the rousing dance music from Copland’s American classic “Rodeo,” Schubert’s lyrical Third Symphony evoking the romance of old Vienna, and a new concerto for the tiny piccolo and huge contrabas-soon in a delightful interplay of rhythm and melody, by young Los Angeles composer Damian Montano.

Montano began teaching himself composition at the age of 7 on the family piano. Although his formal music education has been as an instrumentalist, he is an award winning composer with commissions from symphony orchestras and scores for movies and television. His “Concerto for Piccolo, Contrabassoon & Orchestra” is having its west coast premiere after being commissioned by the Houston Symphony Orchestra, where the audience gave it a standing ovation.

Montano is himself a bassoon/contrabassoonist with symphony orchestras, which has encouraged him to compose for those instruments.

Montano will be introduced on-stage by Maestro Gross, and after the concert there will be an opportunity to chat with him in the lobby about his music. He also will appear at the pre-concert talk given at 6:30 p.m. by professor Raymond Knapp in the meeting room.

The soloists for Damian’s work are Susan Greenberg, piccolo, of Pacific Palisades, and Patricia Kindel, contrabas-soon. Both are well known to concert-goers at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl, and other major orchestras.

Seats are not reserved. The balcony is a favorite place for the many young people, dating couples, and families with school age children who come to the Santa Monica Symphony concerts.

For further information, call (310) 395-6330 or visit the symphony’s Web site, www.smsymphony.org.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 2, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/120205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)