Grande Ronde Symphony Brings World-Class Chamber Artists to La Grande Home
A Paris-trained violist who has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra will play a $40 intimate concert at 705 S. 18th Street in La Grande on April 11.
The Pettit home at 705 S. 18th Street in La Grande will host one of the most quietly ambitious concerts the Grande Ronde Symphony Association has staged this season: a $40 chamber recital featuring violist Arnaud Ghillebaert, whose performance credits include the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the London Symphony Orchestra, alongside pianist Andrew Cannestra, winner of the 2021 Aeolian Classics Emerging Artist Competition. The concert is set for Saturday, April 11 at 7:00 p.m.
The intimate format is deliberate. Rather than booking a conventional hall, the Symphony is staging this third Chamber Series stop of its 2025-26 season inside a private residence, placing the audience within reach of two performers whose normal stages are in London and Eugene. Seating is strictly limited, and the Grande Ronde Symphony requires advance online ticket purchases, with buyers asked to submit an email address to receive parking instructions and any last-minute venue logistics.
Sam Ross, who leads the Grande Ronde Symphony Orchestra locally and the Tilikum Chamber Orchestra in Portland, will join Ghillebaert and Cannestra for the evening, giving La Grande audiences a rare chance to see the region's own conductor in a small-ensemble setting alongside internationally credentialed guests.
The program centers on under-represented composers, a programming choice that moves well beyond the standard symphonic repertoire and offers Union County audiences music unlikely to surface elsewhere in eastern Oregon.
Ghillebaert, originally from Paris, brings transatlantic experience that rarely makes a stop between Portland and Boise. Cannestra, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon, represents a different kind of distinction: a competition-winning emerging artist who is building a serious career in the Pacific Northwest and carries academic rigor directly into performance.
For a community that would otherwise face a three-hour drive to Portland to catch chamber recitals at this level, April 11 represents genuine local arts infrastructure. The $40 ticket is the price of entry; parking details arrive by email after purchase, a small logistical note that signals both the intimacy and the care behind the format.
Tickets are available through the Grande Ronde Symphony website. The association's season continues with a larger spring orchestra concert in late May.
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