Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra
Bringing music to our community

Author: Claire Burke

  • Support Us!

    Support Us!

    Now in our fifth season, NVCO is mainly funded by donors who recognize that Napa county deserves to have its own orchestra.  We pay for conductors, professional section leaders, soloists, and venues.  We rent music, procure new music, print educational programs and pay fees that all non-profit organizations incur. 

    Your donations make it possible to not charge admission to our concerts.  Our goal is to broaden the audience for classical music.

    Please join us in our mission to sustain this excellent community orchestra.

    https://www.candogiveguide.org/nonprofits/napa-valley-chamber-orchestra

  • Save the Date

    Tuesday January 6th
    6-8pm
    Finko at the Fink, 530 Main Street, Napa
    All proceeds go to The Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra

    Every Tuesday is FINKO (bingo) Night at The Fink! Join us for the fun of classic bingo in the grand style and excitement of The Fink. Each week 100% of the game proceeds benefit a different Napa County-based non-profit organization. $10 for 10 games. Fantastic prizes! Distinct Drinks! Fabulous Food! Doors open at 4:00pm. Games start at 6:00pm. ALL AGES WELCOME!

    Bring your family and friends. If we have a full house, we can make up to $1,000 for the orchestra and have a great time!

    The San Francisco Chronicle declared The Fink “One of the best places to eat in Napa…”

    The season continues with a free concert on Sunday, February 22, 2:00pm, at Crosswalk Community Church, 2590 1st St., in Napa. Conductor Melinda Ellis and Concertmaster Mark Hodgson will lead the ensemble presenting music by Mendelssohn, Price, Mozart and Schubert. Cello soloist Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson is the featured artist, playing Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.

  • Welcome to the 5th Season of the Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra! The season continues with a free concert on Sunday, February 22, 2:00pm, at Crosswalk Community Church, 2590 1st St., in Napa. Conductor Melinda Ellis and Concertmaster Mark Hodgson will lead the ensemble presenting music by Mendelssohn, Price, Mozart and Schubert. Cello soloist Isaac Pastor-Chermak is the featured artist, playing Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.

  • Wine & Waltzes

    Sorry to announce that Wine & Waltzes has been postponed. Stay tuned for an updated date.

  • Cellist Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson

    Jeffrey McFarland-Johnson has played the cello since 1960.  He received his Bachelor’s degree in cello performance from the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific and his M.A. in composition at UCSD, La Jolla.  He studied cello with Arto Noras (1966 Tchaikovsky Competition winner) at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.  He has recorded and produced five albums including the Bach solo cello suites Nos.1-3 and Gershwin’s An American In Paris.  He taught middle school music students for twenty-four years and currently teaches exceptional music students in the Napa Valley.  Jeffrey wrote a four-volume series of method books illustrating the harmonic blueprint of string instruments tuned in fourths and fifths.

  • Conductor Melinda Ellis to lead NVCO in February 22 concert

    Melinda Ellis is a passionate music educator, multi-instrumentalist, and conductor living and working in the greater Bay Area. Originally from New Jersey, Melinda holds a BM in Music Education and Viola Performance and an MM in Viola Performance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She currently works for the Vacaville Unified School District, teaching 4th-grade general music and 5th and 6th-grade strings classes at ten schools each week, and also serves as the District Music Coordinator. Outside of her teaching job, Melinda is active as a freelancing mulit-instrumentalist. She plays with several local ensembles, and sits as principal second violin with the Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra. She plays tenor saxophone in the Solano Winds Community Concert Band and saxophone ensemble, is the Assistant Conductor of the Golden Gate Symphony, and sits in their viola section, and is also the Resident Conductor for Missouri Street Theatre Company in Fairfield, where she conducts several large professional musical productions each season, as well as galas and concerts. Having played with the Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra for several seasons now on both viola and violin, Melinda is thrilled and honored to be stepping onto the podium to lead the orchestra for this performance. She hopes you enjoy listening to this vibrant program as much as she and the musicians will enjoy performing it. 

  • Conductor Ann Krinitsky to Lead NVCO in October 5th Concert

    As guest conductor with the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Ann Krinitsky has led concerts on Oahu as well as on tour to the neighbor islands of Hawaii and Kauai. She conducts the orchestra for Ballet Hawaii’s Nutcracker and has led several sold out Live to Film concert performances at Honolulu’s historic Hawaii Theater. She has enjoyed numerous collaborations with Chamber Music Hawaii and the Onium Ballet Project and performed for a crowd of 40,000 at Ala Moana Beach Park as part of the Memorial Day Lantern Floating Ceremony. She has also guest conducted the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival String Orchestra and the Maui Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

    In the Bay Area, Ms. Krinitsky recently completed long and rewarding tenures as Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Performance Programs, Conductor of the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Director of the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School. She has also served as Director of Orchestras at Stanford University; Music Director of the Nova Vista Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Berkeley Youth and Community Women’s Orchestras; Conductor of the Acalanes Chamber Orchestra; and Assistant Conductor of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. She has guest conducted the Sacramento Philharmonic, Women’s Philharmonic, the Camellia Symphony, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.

  • NVCO Welcomes New Artistic Advisor Daria Adams

    A founding Artistic Director of Music in the Vineyards, violinist Daria Tedeschi Adams has been a member of the Grammy Award-winning St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for over 30 years. A graduate of the New England Conservatory and SUNY-Stonybrook, she considers herself a lifelong student, always interested in hearing and learning a new piece of music. As an Artistic Director of Music in the Vineyards, Daria enjoys curating programs that move, inspire, provoke, and delight audiences. Her choreographic arrangements of pieces by J.S. Bach, Aaron Copland, Kevin Puts, Arvö Part and Pablo de Sarasate have been heard frequently on MITV programs. A mother to three adult children, Daria and husband Michael relocated to Napa during MITV’s 30th Anniversary Season in 2024.

  • How to Support NVCO

    Napa Valley Chamber Orchestra relies heavily on donors and volunteers. Please consider making a donation today:

    Click to Donate

    Or head on over to our Donate page for more ways to help with monetary support, and take a look at the Volunteer page to see how to get directly involved.