Before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart takes the stage at Pasadena Playhouse next month, a different group of prodigies will have their moment.
Through a partnership with Pasadena Conservatory of Music, the Playhouse will present Micro Mozart, a series of free 10-minute concerts performed by student musicians ages 9 to 15 in the theater’s restaurant space. The mini-concerts will take place 30 minutes before every performance of Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” which runs February 11 through March 8.
The pairing carries an almost poetic resonance. Audiences arriving for a play about the most celebrated child prodigy in musical history will first encounter young local musicians grappling with his compositions—the same pieces that astonished 18th-century European courts when Mozart himself was their age.
“Amadeus,” directed by Tony Award winner Darko Tresnjak, stars Jefferson Mays as Antonio Salieri, the court’s celebrated musician consumed by jealousy toward his younger rival, and Sam Clemmett as Mozart. Mays won a Tony for Tresnjak’s “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”; Clemmett’s credits include “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.”
The Micro Mozart concerts will feature both instrumental soloists and chamber ensembles drawn from the Conservatory’s student body. Founded in 1984, the Pasadena Conservatory of Music serves more than 1,000 students annually and reaches an additional 3,000 students through programs in Pasadena Unified School District schools.
Pasadena Playhouse, the official State Theater of California, received the Regional Theatre Tony Award in 2023.
Tickets for “Amadeus” are available at pasadenaplayhouse.org, by phone at 626-356-7529, or at the box office at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. The Micro Mozart concerts are free.
Micro Mozart concerts take place before every performance of “Amadeus” at Pasadena Playhouse, Wednesday, February 11 through Sunday, March 8, 2026. The free 10-minute concerts begin 30 minutes before curtain in the Playhouse restaurant space. Performance times for “Amadeus” are 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays; 7 p.m. Thursdays; 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; with additional performances at 8 p.m. Tuesday, February 24 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, March 8. Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101. For more, call 626-356-7529 or visit pasadenaplayhouse.org.
