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American psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips return to Usher Hall as part of their latest tour in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their classic album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Whether you’re raiding the Lost Ark, fleeing a hungry velociraptor or helping a little alien to phone home, one thing’s always for sure: John Williams’ music is the ultimate special effect. Tonight, Hollywood maestro Richard Kaufman takes the RSNO to the movies with a blockbuster tribute to the supreme film composer of our time. Enjoy classic themes from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Jurassic Park and many more – plus a special performance from our Film Composers Lab winner. If you think the music sounds amazing in the cinema, just wait until you hear it live!

Admired for her peerless keyboard prowess as well as her profound musical insights, South Korean Yeol Eum Son has quickly taken a rightful place among the world’s most respected pianists. Following exquisite Mozart in 2022, she returns to the SCO with something far stormier and more dramatic: Beethoven’s powerful Third Piano Concerto.

Some music just captures a certain mood. Debussy basks in silvery moonlight and conjures a melody to haunt your dreams. Rachmaninov loses himself in a painting and takes a surprisingly passionate journey into darkness. Guest conductor Nodoka Okisawa savours both tonight in a concert which just brims with atmosphere, whether it’s the delicacy of Tōru Takemitsu’s How Slow the Wind or Helen Grime’s musical skyscape for Håkan Hardenberger. The world’s greatest classical trumpeter? We think so – but hearing is believing…

Sometimes art imitates life so closely that you can almost feel its breath. “With passion and desire” wrote Tchaikovsky on the slow movement of his Fifth Symphony, and the whole piece is a struggle between love and despair, told in elegant waltzes, bittersweet songs and melody after sweeping melody. Gemma New is always a popular guest conductor here in Scotland, and she knows exactly how to get to the heart of a masterpiece – whether Lera Auerbach’s fiery retelling of the myth of Icarus, or the shadows, secrets and burning truths of Shostakovich’s powerful First Violin Concerto. Rosanne Philippens is the soloist today: a violinist who believes that every note should convey emotion, and forge a connection.

Scotland’s most esteemed violinist – the peerless Nicola Benedetti – joins SCO Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev for an end-of-Season celebration full of romance and adventure.

Wagner’s Ring cycle is an epic in every sense. The full experience takes four days, but this orchestral ‘adventure’ gives you a taste of The Ring – all its majesty, power and drama – in just over an hour! First, though, we welcome our Partnership Ensemble, Dunedin Consort, for Handel’s enchanting Water Music before the Consort’s period instruments lock horns with the full RSNO, in a world premiere from Edinburgh composer Neil T Smith.

Smouldering, sultry, seductive: Buenos Aires is the city where passions catch fire and music teases the senses. Immerse yourself in its vibrant sensuality with the esteemed orchestra of Buenos Aires’s historic opera house, South America’s grandest – and the scorching emotions of Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

‘For me, personally, music has been a way to inspire others,’ says Randall Goosby – and that’s just one reason why we’re delighted to have this young American violinist as Artist in Residence. He’s the perfect performer for Mendelssohn’s magical Violin Concerto. Thomas Søndergård opens with Debussy’s sensuous Prélude and brings all his energy to the First Symphony by Lera Auerbach – a tale of love, death and impossible dreams, from a composer who believes that ‘every concert is about being transformed.’

Officially, Shostakovich based his massive Eleventh Symphony on the Russian revolution of 1905, but this blockbuster of a symphony is still grippingly relevant today. As we pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, Thomas Søndergård brings our Concert Season to a close in truly epic style: opening with the jubilant trumpets of the Festive Overture and joining Daniel Müller-Schott (‘Fearless’ – The New York Times) in a Cello Concerto that feels more like a Cold War thriller. It doesn’t get more powerful than this.