The Vermont Symphony will do a short in-state tour featuring music of Vermonters Sept. 6-8, with violinist and host Bella Hristova. The homegrown composers are Nico Muhly and Pete Sutherland, but there will also be pieces by Piazzola, Price, and Vivaldi. https://www.vso.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/MiV.png
The Calgary Philharmonic blends a classic and a Canadian icon with Tchaikovsky X Drake on Sept. 7. It’s an innovative fusion of Tchaikovsky’s epic Fifth Symphony and over 20 songs by Canadian superstar rapper Drake. Conducted by Steve Hackman. https://calgaryphil.com/events/tchaikovsky-x-drake-2024-09-07-730-pm/
The Montreal Symphony will open its season Sept. 11-13 in an unusual fashion: Music director Rafael Payare will conduct Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder. Written for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, this musical saga narrates the ill-fated romances of King Waldemar at the Gurre Castle, unfolding against a backdrop of jealousy, demise, and damnation. Featuring soprano Dorothea Röschmann and […]
Sept. 18-19 will see the world premiere of Canadian composer Michael Oesterle’s new Orchestre symphonique de Montréal commission. The program, conducted by Rafael Payare, also features Daniil Trifonov playing Schumann’s A minor Piano Concerto, plus Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. https://www.osm.ca/en/concert/berliozs-symphonie-fantastique
It’s a female-led program for the Austin Chamber Music Center season opener Sept. 20-21. ACMC artistic director Sandy Yamamoto has curated an evening of piano trios, three by women (Jessie Montgomery, Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn) plus one by Paul Schoenfeld. https://austinchambermusic.org/event/zeitgeist/
The works of New England composer Mabel Daniels are not often performed, but the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is remedying this by programming Daniels’ Deep Forest, which was first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1939. Violinist Eunae Koh will solo in Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 2. The Sept. 20-21 program also includes an arrangement of […]
The Virginia Symphony’s music director, Eric Jacobsen, will conduct his own brother, Colin Jacobsen, in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto on Sept. 20. The all-Beethoven program also includes the Coriolan Overture and the Fourth Symphony. https://virginiasymphony.org/concert/beethovens-violin-concerto-with-eric-colin-jacobsen-2/
Tulsa Symphony’s new chamber music series, 101 Unplugged, opens Sept. 20 with the orchestra’s string quartet playing Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet No. 14 in D minor and other selections. Light bites and a drink ticket will be provided. https://www.tulsasymphony.org/calendar/unplugged-1
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra will play Mahler’s chamber-orchestra arrangement of Beethoven’s Serioso String Quartet on Sept. 20-21. The program, curated by SPCO violinist Eunae Koh, also includes Haydn’s Violin Concerto (with Koh as soloist), Mozart’s Haffner Symphony, and Mabel Daniels’ Deep Forest. https://content.thespco.org/events/mozarts-haffner-symphony-2425/
The Madison Symphony’s season opener Sept. 20-22 will include the orchestra performing Valerie Coleman’s Umoja: Anthem of Unity for the first time. John DeMain leads cellist Tommy Mesa in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. The program also includes Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante and de Falla’s Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat. https://madisonsymphony.org/event/reunion/
The first of four finalists for the position of music director of the Delaware Symphony will lead the orchestra on Sept. 20. Mélisse Brunet will conduct Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (featuring Melissa White), and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. https://www.delawaresymphony.org/dso_events/brunet-conducts-tchaikovsky/
The Saskatoon Symphony opens its classical season Sept. 21 with the debut of Sara Davis Buechner playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Tania Miller conducts this program, which also includes Elgar’s Enigma Variations. https://saskatoonsymphony.org/event/enigma/
On Sept 21, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra presents the Midwest premiere of David Diamond’s Symphony No. 2, written in 1943 and influenced by the Second World War. Stilian Kirov conducts this all-American program, which also includes symphonies by John Vincent and William Grant Still. https://ipomusic.org/2024-25-season/
The U.S. premiere of The Listeners, by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek, will be presented by Opera Philadelphia Sept. 25-29. The Listeners examines the lengths to which we, as Americans, are willing to go to find a sense of place and purpose. Lileana Blain-Cruz directs this production. https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/in-theaters-2024-2025/the-listeners/
In the Toronto Symphony season opener, Gustavo Gimeno conducts the Canadian premiere of Carlos Simon’s Concerto for Orchestra, Wake Up! Then pianist Jan Lisiecki joins concertmaster Jonathan Crow and principal cellist Joseph Johnson for Beethoven’s captivating Triple Concerto. This Sept. 25-28 program concludes with the Gorchakov orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. https://www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/pictures-at-an-exhibition/
Music director Andris Nelsons leads the Boston Symphony in an all-American program opening with a world premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León and closing with Wake Up: A Concerto for Orchestra by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon. BSO principal clarinet William R. Hudgins is the soloist in Aaron Copland’s delightful Clarinet Concerto, contrasting with […]
It’s been 50 years since the Minnesota Orchestra inaugurated Orchestra Hall. To mark that milestone, conductor Thomas Søndergård will lead two Ravel works played in that inaugural performance: Valse nobles et sentimentales and a movement from Miroirs. Two Thomas Adés works will also be on offer in this Sept. 26-28 season opener: The Exterminating Angel Symphony […]
On Sept. 27, members of the Seattle Symphony present the world premiere of Majel Connery’s Elderflora, a profound life portrait of an ancient tree, as part of the Octave 9 series. The composer will appear on voice and synthesizers, joined by electric cellist Felix Fan. The performance will also feature photos by Noah Kalina. https://www.seattlesymphony.org/en/concerttickets/calendar/2024-2025/24octave1
The Cincinnati Symphony opens the 2024-25 season Sept. 27-28 with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Titan, led by guest conductor Dalia Stasevska. The program also includes Alberto Ginastera’s “Malambo” from Four Dances from Estancia and Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, featuring Chopin Piano Competition winner Bruce Liu in his CSO debut. https://www.cincinnatisymphony.org/tickets-and-events/buy-tickets/cso/2425-cso-season/mahler-symphony-no.-1/
Organist Patrick Scott will make his debut with the Alabama Symphony on Sept. 27-28, playing Saint-Saëns’s Organ Sympony No. 3. The program, conducted by music director Carlos Izcaray, opens with Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, and Amaryn Olmeda solos in Barber’s Violin Concerto. https://alabamasymphony.org/events/barber-saint-saens/
Esa-Pekka Salonen is joined by pianist Alexandre Tharaud in his San Francisco Symphony debut Sept. 27–28, performing the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Baroque-inspired Piano Concerto. The program features three additional works that draw inspiration from an earlier time: Paul Hindemith’s raucous Ragtime (Well-Tempered), Edward Elgar’s transcription of Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV […]
On Sept. 27-28 the Grand Rapids Symphony will present the world premiere of a new orchestration of Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano. Music director Marcelo Lehninger conducts this program, which opens with the Brahms Violin Concerto (featuring Alexandra Soumm) and closes with Robert Schumann’s Fourth Symphony. https://www.grsymphony.org/brahms
A new work by jazz/classical composer Billy Childs will open the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Carnegie Hall program on Sept. 28. Garrick Ohlsson will solo on Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat, and Michael Stephen Brown’s orchestration of Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel closes the program. https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/09/28/Orpheus-Chamber-Orchestra-Garrick-Ohlsson-Piano-0800PM
The National Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence for the 2024-25 season is Carlos Simon. Appropriately, the orchestra, under Gianandrea Noseda, will present Simon’s Four Black American Dances in their opening program Sept. 28. Cliburn Competition winner Yunchan Lim makes his NSO debut as soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto, and the evening concludes with Ravel’s La Valse. […]
Arkansas Symphony opens its season Sept. 28-29 by featuring two Gershwin works and two from the 21st century. The recent compositions are Anna Clyne’s Masquerade and Carlos Simon’s Graffiti. Gershwin is represented by his Piano Concerto in F, featuring Aaron Diehl, and the Cuban Overture. Geoffrey Robson conducts. https://www.arkansassymphony.org/events/aaron-diehl-gershwin/
