A symphonic surprise!

Back on October 9, 2022, jazz pianist David Benoit, well regarded as the prime torchbearer for Guaraldi’s Peanuts legacy, along with his trio — Roberto Vally, bass; and Dan Schnelle, drums — were joined by the Santa Rosa Symphony for the world premiere of Playing for Peanuts: The Music of Vince Guaraldi. The performance took place at Santa Rosa's Luther Burbank Center for the Arts.This ambitious project had been a collaborative effort, for the past couple of years, between Benoit, Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson. Designing, developing and fine-tuning these new orchestrations of Guaraldi’s music — all arranged by Benoit — kept all three occupied while they were sequestered by Covid.(A detailed account of that afternoon performance can be found here.)The song choices, arrangements and sequence were tweaked during the next several years, and then reappeared as Charlie Brown Christmas Live, when performed by the San Francisco Symphony on December 21 and 22, 2025. A few additional…