Tag: Artistic Planning

In Wednesday’s (4/8) Boston Globe, A.Z. Madonna writes, “The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced the music it will play during [Music Director Andris Nelsons’] final season at Symphony Hall … He is slated to lead 15 of 25 subscription programs. The season also includes four themed festivals, a programming framework that has been central to the tenure of president and CEO Chad Smith…. January will be dedicated to Tchaikovsky, with the orchestra presenting all six of the Russian Romantic composer’s symphonies … The event concludes with concert performances of the opera ‘The Queen of Spades’ … The Latvian conductor will also conduct Stravinsky’s three ballet scores … First will be ‘The Rite of Spring’ on a program with Unsuk Chin’s Trumpet Concerto…. [Nelsons’] subscription programs includes major works by Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, as well as the posthumous world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s ‘Prologue’; … the United States premiere of Francisco Coll’s piano concerto featuring Kirill Gerstein; and Carlos Simon’s Double Concerto Suite for violin and cello … The first [festival] … focuses on ‘technology and our humanity,’ with its flagship piece being the world premiere of Tod Machover’s electronics-enhanced orchestral piece ‘already and not yet’ … The other fall festival … juxtaposes Haydn’s oratorio ‘The Creation’ with the world premiere of composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang’s ‘Creation’ … The Boston Pops offer … programs during the season, led by Pops conductor Keith Lockhart.”

In last Tuesday’s (3/31) ArtsATL (Atlanta), Shane Harrison writes, “The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced its 2026-27 season today, and, after wrapping up the Beethoven Project in November 2025 … the orchestra is on to new German pastures…. On October 1 … Brahms takes center stage with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 and his sole Violin Concerto with soloist Johan Dalene. Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann will lead the orchestra … Brahms … weaves through the entire season as the ASO tackles all four symphonies, both of his piano concertos, the Double Concerto for violin and cello, the seven-movement choral masterwork Ein deutsches Requiem and the Academic Festival Overture…. The most striking thing about the ASO’s upcoming season is the sheer variety of the programming and a renewed sense of adventurousness. Music Director Laureate Robert Spano returns … with programs that include English composer Thomas Adès’ Inferno Suite … and the world premiere of Adam Schoenberg’s Concerto for Body…. Living composers [include] John Adams, Joan Tower, James MacMillan, Carlos Simon, Missy Mazzoli, Jasmine Barnes and Thea Musgrave … Simon and Barnes [have been] commissioned by the ASO for a celebration of Coretta Scott King … The ASO will offer two Wagner-heavy programs [and] a weekend devoted solely to Mozart.”

In Tuesday’s (3/31) Montreal Gazette, T’Cha Dunlevy writes, “Rafael Payare is starting to feel like a Montrealer. The maestro embarks on his fifth season at the head of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal this fall…. Originally from Venezuela, Payare and his wife, acclaimed American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, settled with their daughters in Outremont before moving to [Notre-Dame-de-Grâce neighborhood] last year…. Payare splits his time between Montreal and San Diego, where he is completing his seventh year leading the San Diego Symphony…. The OSM announced the programming for its 93rd season on Tuesday, a busy mix of classics, high-profile collaborations and contemporary fare. From works by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Beethoven and Mozart to performances with Cirque du Soleil, Montreal hip-hop star Apashe and classical luminaries Renée Fleming and Lang Lang, as well as film-concerts, a night of tango and a return visit from [former Music Director Kent] Nagano, it’s a program that Payare says is much like his new hometown. ‘Montreal is very diverse,’ he said. ‘We are doing something in the image of the city.’… The programming, OSM violinist and concertmaster Andrew Wan opined, strikes just ‘the right balance of things we know well and challenges. It’s exciting.’ ”

In Thursday’s (3/26) San Francisco Classical Voice, Janos Gereben writes, “San Francisco Symphony audiences who thrilled to dramatically staged, interdisciplinary, innovative presentations … are getting some good news. While SF Symphony is still without a music director since [Esa-Pekka] Salonen’s abrupt departure almost a year ago, the 2026-2027 season …[features] performances combining dance, theater, and videography.… Choreographer Alonzo King and his LINES Ballet join SFS and conductor James Gaffigan to present world premiere works set to Debussy’s Prélude à L’Après-midi d’un faune and Copland’s suite from Appalachian Spring … Janni Younge’s staged production of Stravinsky’s The Firebird, featuring larger-than-life puppets set to contemporary South African dance forms … Deborah O’Grady envisions John Adams’s The Dharma at Big Sur through photography and video … Bay Area composer Gabriella Smith joins the Symphony as Creative Partner ‘to explore ecology and the natural world through programs and special events featuring her works.’… SFS partnering with Congregation Emanu-El for Ernest Bloch’s monumental Avodath Hakodesh (Sacred Service), a five-part choral-orchestral setting of Hebrew liturgy…. The world premieres of SF Symphony commissions by Emerging Black Composers Project winner Kyle Rivera … and a new concerto for harp and percussion by Rene Orth … Additional SF Symphony commissions include Gabriella Smith’s violin concerto How to Be a Bird … and a new work by Reena Esmail.”