Composer

A rhapsody on Gypsy tunes, an American masterwork played by an American soloist, and Beethoven at his sunniest. Rising star William Hagen brings Samuel Barber’s violin concerto, on a program with Zoltán Kodály’s whirling Dances of Galánta and Beethoven’s beloved bucolic romp, his Pastoral symphony.

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Beethoven and Barber

The Forum Auditorium

Acclaimed conductor Dalia Stasevska returns to conduct Mahler’s serenely lovely Fourth Symphony on a program with Barber’s melodic Violin Concerto, performed here by violinist Augustin Hadelich, a riveting artist who “appears to fuse entirely with the violin, as if he were the human personification of a glissando” (Bachtrack).

Mahler’s Symphony No. 4

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Johannes Brahms was seen by many in his own time (and today) as Beethoven’s successor in the German symphonic tradition — and the Fourth Symphony, his last, is his greatest symphonic achievement. Compositionally complex yet emotionally direct and moving, we invite you to experience your Kansas City Symphony’s performance of this powerful work that will take you to the height of German Romanticism. Clara Wieck, who later married the composer Robert Schumann (and became good friends with Brahms), wrote her piano concerto when she was only 15. A perfect counterpoint to the gravity of Brahms’s symphony, the piece shines with youthful vigor and virtuosity.

Brahms' Fourth Symphony

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Alevtina Ioffe returns to conduct richly and unusually textured works by three 20th-century titans. Bernstein’s Serenade, written for Isaac Stern, showcases the virtuosity of Ukrainian-Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman. This work for violin, percussion and string orchestra is based on The Symposium, Plato’s Socratic dialogue on love, and ranges from solemnly contemplative to jazzy and sprightly. Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony is another work of mesmerizing contrasts: haunting folk song-like melodies are followed by nimble passages evoking adventure, while playful dancing flourishes develop ominous undertones. The mysterious intermezzo from Barber’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Vanessa rounds out the program.

Bernstein & Rachmaninov

Benaroya Hall

Randall Goosby Returns

Mayo Performing Arts Center

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

State Theatre New Jersey

Princeton University

How do you celebrate New Year's Eve? Raclette, champagne, and fireworks? Looking back and looking ahead? Perhaps good conversations, with or without a party? For us, New Year's Eve is, above all, music, with which we bid farewell to the old year and toast the new one with you. We're already looking forward to seeing you again on New Year's Eve: The wonderful conductor Elim Chan has already fascinated and enchanted us in four concert programs.

New Year's Eve

Cologne Philharmonie

With the end of the 2024/2025 season, Axel Kober has stepped down as General Music Director of the Duisburg Philharmonic. It was a long and fruitful collaboration, for which the conductor is now being honored with the 2025 Duisburg City Music Prize, sponsored by the Köhler-Osbahr Foundation. For him, the award is a wonderful acknowledgment – ​​"to receive feedback, so to speak, after the years spent together that what we have done has left its mark." And, of course, he will try "to continue to remain connected to Duisburg's musical life." A promise he immediately fulfills in the 4th Philharmonic Concert. After programming Arnold Schoenberg's powerful "Gurre-Lieder" in his farewell concert as General Music Director, he returns to his former orchestra conducting works by two American composers and combining them with Beethoven's Symphony No. 7: Charles Ives' "The Unanswered Question" sounds mystical and transcendental, creating an iconic work of American modernism. Meanwhile, in Samuel Barber's popular Violin Concerto, violin virtuosity and voluptuous melodies enter into a delightful liaison. Dance-like rhythms then characterize Beethoven's Seventh, which, with the Allegretto, also contains one of the greatest hits of the Viennese classic.

American and European classics

CityPalais

For almost 50 years, the "El Sistema" initiative, Venezuela's large-scale music development program, has been a fixture in national and international musical life. The youth orchestras, in particular, have made a name for themselves under the direction of renowned conductors – the most famous example is the orchestra named after freedom fighter Simón Bolívar, with its chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel, which, strictly speaking, is no longer a youth orchestra. The successor orchestra, featuring highly talented and motivated young musicians, star conductor Sir Simon Rattle, and Gustav Mahler's beloved First Symphony, is now coming to Hamburg.

National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela / Sir Simon Rattle

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

A quiet pulse, and a long, chant-like melody that seems to breathe the air of old Russia – it’s an unlikely way to begin one of the most difficult and brilliant piano concertos ever created. Rachmaninov’s Third has been called the “Everest of piano concertos” but if anyone’s equipped to scale it, it’s the superb young British virtuoso Isata Kanneh-Mason and the BBC SSO’s newly-appointed Principal Guest Conductor Delyana Lazarova.

Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto

Music Hall, Aberdeen

City Halls

Mozart's music had already captivated Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. "Listening to it gives me unadulterated joy, evokes a feeling of warmth within me," he once wrote. In his Romantic era, minor-key works such as Mozart's Piano Fantasy K. 397 were particularly popular.

Mozart – Fantastic!

Zeughaus Neuss

The Orchestra Now Resident Conductor Zachary Schwartzman returns with the orchestra to Symphony Space for another free concert. The concert opens with Strauss’s beloved tone poem Don Juan. Then tenor Ryan Michki, a winner of the 2024 Bard Conservatory Concerto Competition, performs Vaughan Williams’ emotional English song cycle On Wenlock Edge, written after the composer had spent three months studying with Maurice Ravel in Paris. Also on the program are Steven Stucky’s arrangement of Purcell’s Funeral Music for Queen Mary, originally composed 330 years ago in 1695, and Samuel Barber’s epic and expansive Symphony No. 1 in One Movement.

The Orchestra Now: "Don Juan" and Vaughan Williams

Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space

The COP's second concert features a different set of the three B's!  We hope you enjoy these rarely played works by Britten and Barberas well as a favorite Bach Concerto performed by Amaury Morales.

The Other Three B's

Rodef Shalom Congregation

Music that brings stillness. It may sound paradoxical, but that’s exactly the goal of Casco Phil’s INKEER concerts. Together with a professional meditation specialist, Casco Phil’s string quartet offers a counterbalance to our hectic, digital, hyper-fast daily lives. The quest for inner peace is timeless. From the intricate vocal weavings of Palestrina, Allegri and Mechelen-born Philippus de Monte to the impressionistic colour palettes of Ravel and Debussy: old and new meet in a search for inner calm that makes you forget time—even if just for a moment.

[inkeer]

Mechelen Public Library Het Predikheren

Lidiya Yankovskaya returns to conduct Rimsky-Korsakov’s beloved Sheherazade, inspired by Arabian Nights featuring concertmaster soloist Rolf Haas. Ten-time Grammy Award Winner and 2024 Kennedy Center Honoree Arturo Sandoval performs his very own Trumpet Concerto No. 2, inpired by his Latin Jazz roots and his love of Rachmaninoff. Samuel Barber’s Second Essay for Orchestra rounds out the program.

Scheherazade and Sandoval

Phoenix Convention Center

You can't beat the beauty of Barber! Anthony Parnther leads the Orchestra through three of the composer's most iconic works: the gorgeous Adagio for Strings, the evocative Symphony in One Movement, and the dazzling Violin Concerto — featuring soloist Amaryn Olmeda, winner of the First Prize and Audience Choice awards at the 24th Annual Sphinx Competition. Plus, we'll voyage to the stars with dynamic galaxy-inspired pieces by Jessie Montgomery and Missy Mazzoli.

Best of Barber: Adagio + More

Arts Commons

Augustin Hadelich performs Barber’s Violin Concerto, full of expressive melodies for soloist and orchestra alike. Dima Slobodeniouk conducts Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, with moods ranging from pastoral to ecstatic, and Stonework by Finnish composer Sebastian Fagerlund, whose music has been called “fiercely energetic and glitteringly intricate” (BBC Music Magazine).

Augustin Hadelich Performs Barber

David Geffen Hall

A concert to transport your imagination through storytelling and tall tales - from the romp that is Strauss’ Overture to Die Fledermaus, relating the farcical misadventures of a man dressed as a bat, to romantic tales of the Arabian Nights in Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade. En route, drift off to a place of great calmness and tranquillity with Barber’s sublime Adagio for Strings and hear the tumultuous life story of an imaginary soldier in Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kije Suite.

Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra

The Anvil

VoicesOfAmerica: Bernstein Barber & World Premiere

Sandler Center for the Performing Arts

Two: Scenes of Life

Valdosta State University

Experience an evening of drama and lyricism with music that stirs the soul. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy sets the tone with its passionate and timeless depiction of Shakespeare’s tragic lovers. Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, featuring soprano Kathryn Mueller, captures the tender nostalgia of childhood and simpler times. The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, a masterful exploration of fate and triumph, brought to life in its full emotional grandeur

Romeo & Juliet

Michigan Theatre

Platoon, Death in Venice, 2001: A Space Odyssey… picture those classic movies and you can already hear the music of Samuel Barber, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. But there’s no cinema on earth that can beat the sound of a full symphony orchestra playing these masterpieces live. That’s what we’re doing tonight, and there’s a bonus feature too, as violinist James Ehnes premieres a brand-new showpiece by Hollywood legend James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, The Hunger Games).

Also sprach Zarathustra

Usher Hall

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Perth Concert Hall

Platoon, Death in Venice, 2001: A Space Odyssey… picture those classic movies and you can already hear the music of Samuel Barber, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. But there’s no cinema on earth that can beat the sound of a full symphony orchestra playing these masterpieces live. That’s what we’re doing tonight, and there’s a bonus feature too as violinist James Ehnes premieres a brand-new showpiece by Hollywood legend James Newton Howard (The Sixth Sense, The Hunger Games). The young musicians of Big Noise Raploch get the evening off to a rousing start with a special side-by-side with the musicians of the RSNO.

Perth Concert Series: Royal Scottish National Orchestra - Also Sprach Zarathustra

Sacred music was never meant to be this much fun! ‘Part monk, part hooligan’ was how one contemporary described the French composer Francis Poulenc, and they might have been talking about his Gloria, too: a huge, irreverent shout of joy for a great chorus. The City of London Choir joins the RPO and conductor Daniel Hyde to raise the roof today; first, though, there’s another choral blockbuster from France (this time by Lili Boulanger), music reminiscent of a holiday in Provence from the composer of Carmen and Debussy’s beautiful moonlit serenade. We also hear not one but two musical letters from America. Everyone loves the deep emotion of Barber’s Adagio – but when you hear soprano Sally Matthews sing Knoxville, his tender memoir of a vanished youth, we think you’ll fall in love all over again.

Poulenc's Gloria

Cadogan Hall 

Sacred music was never meant to be this much fun! “Part monk, part hooligan” was how one contemporary described the French composer Francis Poulenc, and they might have been talking about his Gloria too: a huge, irreverent shout of joy for a great chorus.

The City of London Choir joins the RPO and conductor Daniel Hyde to raise the roof today; first, though, there’s another choral blockbuster from France (this time by Lili Boulanger), music reminiscent of a holiday in Provence from the composer of Carmen, and Debussy’s beautiful moonlit serenade.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Journey through memory and place with Mendelssohn’s sunny Italian Symphony, Barber’s nostalgic Knoxville Summer of 1915 featuring soprano Stefanie Anduri, and Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertante, celebrating the diverse voices of the orchestra. A musical exploration of landscapes and identities that shape us.

Echoes: of Memory and Identity

The Lincoln Center

We are rarely confronted with death in our culture. We don't talk about it and we move it to nursing homes and hospices. Perhaps a new attitude towards death and grief is slowly emerging, but we still lack rituals and spaces to face them, because studies show that grief is fundamentally lonely in our society. The concert series 'The Tones of Death' will attempt to create such a space, perhaps a modern mourning ritual, where death is existential and where we can be together about it.

In 2021, the Danish Entertainment Orchestra performed the first concert with 'The Tones of Death', which was framed by excerpts from Naja Marie Aidt's 'If death has taken something from you, give it back. Carl's book', selected and read by the author herself. Since then, there have been successful concerts in 2022 and 2023 with, among others, Søren Ulrik Thomsen and Maren Uthaug as literary guests.

Death Tones

The Royal Danish Academy of Music

An American Salute

Mechanics Bank Theater

The November concert by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Jindra, will present remarkable works of American and French music. Samuel Barber wrote Toccata Festiva, Op. 36 for the inauguration of the new organ at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. It will be performed at the Municipal House in Prague by the excellent organist Christian Schmitt.

Saint-Saëns “Organ”

Municipal House

Our 65th Anniversary Season opens with ECHOES — a concert that blends traditions of remembrance and celebration. Inspired by All Saints Day and Día de los Muertos, this program highlights the power of music to uplift, connect, and bring joy. From David Conte’s Three Mexican Folk Songs to Dan Forrest’s Introit-Kyrie from Requiem for the Living, Ēriks Ešenvalds’ O Salutaris Hostia to Bach’s Dona Nobis Pacem, and more, the afternoon unfolds in a rich tapestry of sound.

Echoes

San Dieguito United Methodist Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral

Eunice Keem is the Associate Concertmaster for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and is a founding member of Carnegie Mellon University’s Starling Quartet, with whom she toured Costa Rica, China and the United States in their series of concerts and masterclasses

Barber & Beethoven

Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations

Voces Intimae – literally “inner voices” – is a programme where strings speak the language of the soul. Since the early Romantic era, composers have considered the string quartet the ideal medium for their most personal confessions. Beethoven, for example, composed his Eleventh String Quartet during a time of unrequited love and increasing deafness. The result is a deeply introspective and expressive work. Samuel Barber, decades later, rose to fame with his heartbreaking Adagio for Strings, originally the slow movement of his own quartet – now a timeless 20th-century classic.

Voces Intimae

Cinema Walburg

A radiant force in the new generation of pianists, Avery Gagliano brings insight, imagination, and a bold interpretive voice to the stage. Hailing from Washington, D.C., Gagliano is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and a mentee of Sir András Schiff at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. Lauded by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “a pianist who conveys a vivid musical personality and bold imagination,” Gagliano is a familiar and beloved presence on Washington Performing Arts stages. Her program traverses Romantic fervor, American lyricism, Hungarian fire, and the introspective intensity of late-Romantic Russian works—each piece a canvas for her expressive brilliance.

Avery Gagliano, piano

Washington Performing Arts

Written during a time of political and personal turmoil, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 unfolds with boldness and intensity. Never performed by the CSO, the massive symphony reflects Shostakovich’s defiance and anguish, marked by shifts from lush orchestration to aggressive dissonance. In contrast, Stella Chen, Gramophone 2023 Young Artist of the Year, joins the CSO for one of the most beautiful violin concertos of all time, wherein Barber’s signature lyricism tugs on heartstrings through his haunting, melancholic melodies.

Barber & Shostakovich

Cincinnati Music Hall

Feel the magic of Delirium Musicum as they take the Main Stage for a performance that will leave you spellbound! Delirium Musicum envisions a world inspired by the ecstatic interpretation of music. Led by visionary violinist Etienne Gara, Delirium Musicum pushes the boundaries of classical music with electrifying energy and boundless creativity.

Delirium Musicum

Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center

Rancho Campana High School

Learn more about the music, artists, and personalities of Brilliance & Beyond with composer and Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, Gregory Youtz, and Symphony Tacoma Music Director Sarah Ioannides.

Brilliance & Beyond (2025-2026 Season)

Pantages Theater

Transatlantic Sounds

Prinzregententheater

Koo Conducts Barber

Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture

Martin Beaver, first violin of the famed Toyko String Quartet, makes his NWS debut to join Fellows for quartets by Schubert and Barber.

Reserve your seats today and enjoy unbeatable savings by subscribing to New World Symphony’s Chamber Music Series. Starting at just $10 a concert, the 2025-26 series features six glorious afternoons with the music of Franz Schubert, J.S. Bach, Kaija Saariaho, Julius Eastman, Samuel Barber, Meredith Monk and more.

Farrenc + Tower

New World Center

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents Medea, a tale of infidelity and revenge like no other. Euripides’s millennia-old tragedy comes to life — and gruesome death — in this presentation of acclaimed director Sir David McVicar’s iconic, grand-scale production.

Featuring Lyric’s own Music Director Enrique Mazzola on the podium, this intense spectacle stars international powerhouse soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in one of the fiercest, most demanding roles ever written. She shares the stage with equally formidable tenor — and Lyric favorite — Matthew Polenzani.

Medea

Lyric Opera House

October 2025 Concert

Downey Theatre

Experience the power and majesty of the organ reverberate through Legacy Hall as the CSO welcomes organist Christopher Houlihan for The King of Instruments. Unlike any other concert this season, this rare and resplendent program places the mighty organ center stage paired with the grandeur and sonic brilliance of a symphony orchestra. Strauss’ Feierlicher Einzug opens with bold brass and noble procession, followed by Barber’s Toccata Festiva, where Houlihan dazzles with commanding virtuosity and color. During an extended intermission, enjoy a festive reception with hand-crafted desserts and drink pairings. The night culminates in Saint-Saens’ “Organ” Symphony No. 3, a breathtaking fusion of orchestra and organ that builds to a triumphant finale.

CSO: The King of Instruments

RiverCenter for the Performing Arts

Curtis Symphony Orchestra launches its 2025–26 series with a dynamic program tracing the evolution of orchestral music. The evening opens with Overture to The School for Scandal, Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber’s witty and fast-paced overture inspired by Sheridan’s 18th-century comedy. Grammy-winning conductor Christoph Eschenbach leads Krzysztof Penderecki’s Concerto Grosso for Three Cellos, featuring Curtis alumni Nicholas Canellakis, Yumi Kendall, and Christine Jeonghyoun Lee—a striking work that blends lyrical beauty with bold dissonance and rhythmic intensity.

A Voyage Through Symphonic Expression.

Of Thee I Sing kicks off CSO’s Celebrating America Season with vocal fireworks from soprano Christie Conover! She will join the orchestra for songs by beloved American composers Barber and Bernstein. In addition, you’ll hear Bernstein’s Candide Overture and play “name that tune” with the American folk songs quoted in Ives’ Symphony No. 2.

Of Thee I Sing

Cheyenne Civic Center

Pergolesi’s sacred masterpiece, the Stabat Mater, is filled with gorgeous, spine-tingling music that explores the nature of grief, hope and healing. These emotions also course through Barber’s sublime Adagio for Strings and Carlos Simon’s Fate Now Conquers, a high-spirited tribute to Beethoven. CSO Piccolo Jennifer Gunn solos as the mercurial protagonist in Thea Musgrave’s Piccolo Play.

Piccolo Play & Adagio for Strings

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Our opening concert, “Made in America,” will showcase Grammy Award-winning violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in Barber’s Violin Concerto—one of the great lyrical American classical concertos, complete with technical fireworks. The orchestra will be featured in Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, his final symphonic work written entirely in America and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. We open with Dvořák’s Carnival Overture, written just before Dvořák traveled abroad from Prague to live in the US to teach in New York City. This overture was seen as both a farewell to his native country and as a hello to New York.

Made in America

Baylor University

About the program  Dmitri Shostakovich is always an exciting acquaintance, which has taken on a new twist here, as his five preludes for piano from 1919-21 are performed at this concert in an arrangement for piano and cello by composer Lera Auerbach (born 1973).

Marianna Shirinyan & Torleif Thedéen

Mogens Dahl Koncertsal

Viennese Classical meets American Classical. We present the latter with one of the most established violinists in the USA. Philippe Quint has been nominated for several Grammy Awards. The New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph rave about the poetry of his playing, his "consummate musicality, richness of sound, and passion." He has demonstrated how apt this assessment of the critics is in his collaborations with some of the world's finest orchestras.

1. Classical on Sunday

Exhibition Hall 4

Music Director Andreas Delfs leads our soaring season opener with a thrilling mix of energy and elegance. Esteemed American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers brings her signature radiance to Barber’s deeply expressive Violin Concerto, a work of lyrical beauty and dazzling virtuosity. Mason Bates’ high-octane Mothership launches the program with modern flair, while Dvořák’s joyous Symphony No. 6 fills Kodak Hall with rich melodies and Bohemian spirit. An awe-inspiring start to an unforgettable season!

RPO: 25/26 Season Opener! Breathtaking Barber

Kodak Center

25/26 Season Opener! Breathtaking Barber

Eastman Theatre

The Knox-Galesburg Symphony opens the 2025-2026 season with a powerful tribute to American spirit and local legacy. Under the direction of Richard Cangro, this program features Lincoln Portrait by Aaron Copland, with actor Steven Duchrow portraying Carl Sandburg as narrator—a nod to Sandburg’s Grammy-winning 1960 performance. Also on the program are Copland’s stirring Fanfare for the Common Man, Barber’s deeply moving Adagio for Strings, and Gershwin’s vibrant An American in Paris. This unforgettable evening blends music, poetry, theater, and the enduring presence of Carl Sandburg in the heart of Galesburg.

Lincoln Portrait

The Orpheum Theatre

Camellia Symphony Orchestra: New World Visions

C.K. McClatchy High School

Many musical masterpieces have been used in cinema for their powerful evocative power, such as Barber's famous Adagio, heard in over twenty films. Another American composer, Bernard Herrmann, has often been associated with the great director Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he composed numerous original scores, including that of the film Psycho, which left its mark on the imagination through its unforgettable use of string instruments.

Shadow and Light, cinema to listen to

Palais Montcalm

Season Opener Ignite

University of Alabama

Let's celebrate the musical diversity of the Americas together on September 21 with an event full of incredible rhythms and melodies!

Music of the Americas

Maryland Hall

Subscription concert

Kurpark Bad Oeynhausen

Konzerthalle, Bad Salzuflen

Detmold University of Music

Rathaus Gütersloh

Schützenhof city park

Stadtpark Schützenhof Hangül GmbH

The Minden Theater (Stadttheater Minden)

Paderhalle Paderborn

Dvorák: New World Symphony

Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts

The BSO opens its season with a tribute to some of the great American composers, past and present. The pulse-pounding energy of John Adams takes us for a Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Jessie Montgomery’s arrangement of I Want to Go Home and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 both reflect on memory, history, and longing. John Williams’ "Escapades" from the Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can evokes an air of cool mischievousness with its dynamic interplay of saxophone, vibraphone, and bass. The jazzy swagger of Gershwin’s famous An American in Paris finishes the evening.

BSO Opening Gala

Boston Symphony Orchestra

The HSO Wind Quintet presents a program of American Landscapes:  music of composers Amy Beach, Eric Ewazen, and Valerie Coleman evokes the calm of a New Hampshire forest, the grandeur of the Roaring Fork river in Colorado, and the bluesy southern charm along the Mississippi River.  The program concludes in Michigan, with a piece commissioned and premiered in the state: Samuel Barber’s famous Summer Music.

Free Chamber Music – HSO Wind Quintet

Harderwyk Ministries

Second Reformed Church

Get ready to “Rach.” Our season kicks off with a trio of rich melodies and vivacious energy. The swashbuckling high seas adventure of Korngold’s The Sea Hawk is filled with cinematic flair. Guest pianist and Maestro Tim’s college BFF, Corey Hamm, shows off the dynamic brilliance of Barber’s Piano Concerto. We finish with Rachmaninov’s powerful and expressive Symphony No. 2 for an unforgettable performance you simply can’t miss.

Masterworks I

Paramount Theatre Iowa

The University of Iowa School of Music - Voxman Building

JoAnna Farrer is the Concertmaster of the Savannah Philharmonic, and a member of the New Jersey Symphony. She has performed as a soloist with many ensembles, including the GoteborgsSymfoniker, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic. As a concertmaster, she has worked with conductors such as James Conlon, James DePreist, and Lorin Maazel, including performances of Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” at the Kennedy Center with Maestro Maazel. In previous seasons, Farrer has served as guest concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.

Opening Weekend

Lucas Theatre For the Arts

The first of three amazing fifth symphonies kicks off our celebration of five seasons with Music Director Eric Jacobsen. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony takes the listener on a transformative journey from struggle to triumph while showcasing the artistry of the VSO musicians. World renowned cellist and prolific recording artist Jan Vogler joins us to perform one of the most acclaimed cello concertos of the 21st century.

OPENING WEEKEND: Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony + Cellist Jan Vogler

Chrysler Hall Norfolk

Ferguson Center for the Arts

It’s always an event when Emanuel Ax performs, and Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto will showcase his prodigious virtuosity. This grand work speaks with a bold new voice in the dramatic key of C minor that Beethoven turned to for his revolutionary works. So, hang onto your seat when, after a gargantuan orchestral introduction, the piano announces its presence with three crashing fortissimo chords! The exhilarating Harmonielehre is one of Adams’ most popular works. A fascinating fusion of minimalism and late Romanticism — rushing waves of color, pulsing rhythms and shimmering textures — it promises an unforgettable musical journey at its DSO premiere. The composer points to the final movement that “culminates in a tidal wave of brass and percussion over a pedal point on E-flat Major.” Beginning this concert is the piece that sparked Barber’s career, The School for Scandal. His first work for orchestra is filled with romance and drama, ending on a note of joyous harmony.

Emanuel Ax Plays Beethoven

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

As part of Tippet Rise’s Wander series, this concert takes place among works of art located on the art center’s Cottonwood Campus, including the Tiara Acoustic Shell, Daydreams and Cursive Takes a Holiday by Patrick Dougherty, Xylem by Francis Kéré, and the Olivier Music Barn.

Wander Series: Roots in the Sky

The Cottonwood Campus

Say & Altstaedt

Peter-Paul-Kirche

St. Marienkirche

Join us for an evocative evening of orchestral storytelling featuring Barber’s nostalgic Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Beethoven’s electrifying Symphony No. 7. Barber’s lyrical setting captures the innocence and wonder of childhood on a summer evening, while Beethoven’s rhythmic masterpiece pulses with dance-like energy from start to finish. Experience these two powerful works up close—and hear them like never before!

Composer

Samuel Barber

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 2, 2024 - Apr 14, 2026

Chamber Music for Winds · The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Jan 15, 2026

Copland's Rodeo · Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

16 - 17 Jan, 2026

American Voices · Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

17 - 18 Jan, 2026

Masterworks II: Amaryn Olmeda & Mozart 38 · The Auburn Symphony

Jan 18, 2026

January Chamber Concert · CityMusic Cleveland

Past events

10 - 11 Jan, 2026

Beethoven and Barber · Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra

9 - 11 Jan, 2026

Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 · Philadelphia Orchestra

About

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