By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published April 22, 2026
ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak Symphony Orchestra will wrap up its 30th season with a spring concert at 7:30 p.m. May 8.
The concert will feature music including “Poet and Peasant Overture,” by Franz Von Suppé; “Symphony No. 8,” by Antonín Dvořák; “Sonata for Clarinet,” by Leonard Bernstein featuring Kristen Moreno, clarinet; “Royal Roots and Branches,” by Director Mark Douglass; and “Tranquil Bedlam: A Symphonic Tone Poem,” by 11-year-old Nora C. Harris-Ko.
The concert will take place at the Dondero Auditorium at Royal Oak Middle School, 709 N. Washington Ave. Tickets cost $20 for the general public, $15 for students and seniors, and they are free for children 12 and younger.
Douglass, the symphony’s music director, said that they are going to start the show with his composition, “Royal Roots and Branches.”
“It’s just a gift to the symphony, just celebrating 30 years of service to the community, which I am pretty excited about,” he said. “We read it last night (April 15), and it went pretty well.”
Douglass said that the pieces they will play all hold themes of spring, like “Symphony No. 8,” by Dvořák.
“He (Dvořák) did not intend this, but there are so many things in there that are like spring. It just sounds and feels like a spring celebration to me,” Douglass said. “It’s very triumphant as well. It goes through a lot of emotions, and at the very end you can feel triumph.”
The piece fits perfectly in the showcase especially because of it being the orchestra’s 30th season, Douglass said.
Nora C. Harris-Ko, the 11-year-old composer, has written “Tranquil Bedlam: A Symphonic Tone Poem” for the spring showcase. Harris-Ko is the daughter of concertmaster Allison Harris, and this is the first time she is going to be hearing an orchestra perform one of her pieces.
Harris-Ko said the first piece of music she ever wrote was called “Lillypads” when she was just 7 years old.
“I usually think of a melody and then play it on the piano, and then sometimes try it on other instruments,” Harris-Ko said. “Then I finally record it.”
Douglass said that it is rare for such a young composer to hear her music played by a symphony orchestra, and it’s important that she has this opportunity.
“I teach composers, and I have been composing for years. I think having the piece played is the most important thing, because you can see something in your mind, but then when you actually hear it, it is so different,” Douglass said. “And from that experience, you learn and grow. And the composers who are really great and the well-known composers who are working today have had the luxury of having their music played, and from that experience they change and they grow.”
Harris-Ko said that her piece plays off the idea of siblings fighting.
“To me, it feels as though it is shifting between siblings arguing and making up, and doing it all over again only to realize that they can’t remember what they were arguing about,” she said. “I am very grateful to have it being played by a symphony orchestra.”
Her piece is creative, according to Douglass, who said he very much liked the sound of it.
“It’s so creative, things that I would have never thought to do. And she uses extreme ranges and extreme dynamics and things like that, and just creativity,” he said. “The fact that she’s using the orchestra, which I think the orchestra is an instrument, and she’s using it in ways that are like, nobody has told her she can’t do that, and it’s a creative, beautiful piece.”
Harris-Ko said she is honored to be on the same flyer as Dvořák.
“In the words of Pam Munoz Ryan’s novel ‘Echo,’ ‘I think the opportunity to make music is a gift everyone should receive at least once in their life, whether they unwrap it all the way or not,’” she said.
This being the orchestra’s 30-year anniversary is impressive and exciting to Douglass, who said that it’s a rare achievement.
“This is my first season with them, and I am really grateful for the orchestra and for the time that we spent together getting to know each other this year,” he said. “Orchestras have a hard time staying afloat, and for this orchestra to be so successful, and they are mindfully community-based — there are a lot of things that we are doing that we are thinking about how we can better serve our community.”
For more information on the Royal Oak Symphony Orchestra, and to buy tickets, visit royaloakorchestra.org. Tickets will also be available at the door.