What Makes Us Awesöme?

We hold free reading sessions about once a month. Part performance, part open rehearsal, we're open to all musicians and all audiences. Awesöme Orchestra Collective plays everything from Björk to Stravinsky in fun spaces all over the San Francisco Bay Area.

IT STARTED WITH A MUSICAL EXPERIMENT
In the spring of 2013, conductor David Möschler called up a bunch of Bay Area musicians for an experiment — an open music reading session, with Beethoven, Bolero, and free beer. Over fifty people showed up. They realized immediately that they had created something special: a musical group dedicated to being awesome and accessible on every level.

What began as a small collective of friends playing music together has grown into a community that spans the Bay Area. Today, over 2,000 local musicians have played in Awesöme Orchestra. We hope that you’ll join us at our next musical adventure as a player or an audience member!

Our core values: we strive for accessibility, community, and excellence in all that we do. We believe music sounds better when everybody is having a good time. We recognize that orchestras have long been complicit in the systemic oppression of marginalized communities while passing off this exclusion as "tradition." We are aware these inequalities are deeply systemic and will take years to undo, and our organization remains committed to combating these injustices with the following actions and goals:

Amplify voices of marginalized communities
Form deeper partnerships with communities and organizations.
Create more equity and representation at every level of our organization.

AÖC's End-of-Year Concert 2026