Composer

Nobuyuki Tsujii returns with Shostakovich’s jocular and fun-loving Second Piano Concerto, and a similar playfulness runs through a brand-new piece by the sensational young composer Carmel Smickersgill. Her work blends pop and classical influences to explore themes of love, heartbreak and death – she describes it as ‘silly music that comes from a serious place’. Much darker forces emerge in Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain and dawn breaks to the sound of one of the Orchestra's mighty Forever Bells. Peace is finally restored thanks to Sibelius’ Sixth Symphony, a luminous, restrained work inspired by early English music.

Nobu Returns

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

EPSG:4326

Northern Spirits: Sibelius Symphony No. 2

Lesher Center for the Arts

Explore the mastery of Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius, a visionary who carved a rugged, singular path through the landscape of modern music.

The Art of Jean Sibelius

Long Center for the Performing Arts Lafayette

“All tumult, all yearning and storming of the heart, become here the blissful insolence of joy.” What do you get when Beethoven's momentous Symphony No.7 , which Wagner praised so heartfeltly, meets the most dazzling Nordic symphony? Fire and ice. Enjoy our Orchestra's theatrical mastery with this enticing show conducted by Giulio Cilona, ​​whose sharp listening skills are a feat of fervor.

Beethoven / Sibelius

Opéra National De Lyon

With some pieces, you just want to close your eyes and let your imagination paint a picture. For our Finnish guest conductor Emilia Hoving, it’s all about the landscape of the far North: lakes, forests, midnight sunlight and the shimmering wonder of the Northern Lights. So let your ears do the gazing in Finnish classics by Saariaho and Sibelius – and join RSNO Leader Maya Iwabuchi on an autumn getaway to the Austrian Alps, in Brahms’ magnificent Violin Concerto.

RSNO Season 26-27: Brahms' Violin Concerto

Usher Hall

Memory’s power to free the imagination stands behind countless works of art, with recollections of the four seasons occupying a special status among the most potent of creative catalysts. Louise Alder, acclaimed by The Times as ‘a terrific talent, combining a big lustrous voice with flawless intonation and a keen intelligence’, and Joseph Middleton take a voyage around the cosmos of songs inspired by ever-changing seasonal landscapes, moods and states of mind.

Louise Alder soprano; Joseph Middleton piano

Wigmore Hall

The 1038th Subscription Concert in Bunkamura Orchard Hall

Bunkamura

There is a serene kind of beauty found only at twilight, when the landscape cedes to legend; this program lingers in these wild places at their most untamed and fragile. Anna Clyne’s stormy nocturne gathers “every shred of the luminous past” like “a naked woman running mad through the pure night.” Tan Dun’s spiritually cinematic Wolf Totem summons the mythical Mongolian wolf from the grasslands. Sibelius’s devastating Fifth conjures the inscrutable patterns of the aurora. Three works that find beauty in loss, solace in vast spaces, and mystery in the gathering dark.

Masterworks 2: Nightfall

First Baptist Church Of Asheville

Cello superstar Sheku Kanneh-Mason, whose albums have sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, joins our very own Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Saint-Saëns

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Westmorland Hall, Kendal

The 177th Subscription Concert in Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall

Tokyo Opera City Tower

The 1037th Subscription Concert in Suntory Hall

ARK Hills

Cello superstar Sheku Kanneh-Mason, whose albums have sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, joins Royal Northern Sinfonia and their Music Director Dinis Sousa for this not to be missed concert.

Middlesbrough Town Hall

Brahms at his most powerful and Sibelius at his most beautiful.
‘What beauty!’ declared Jean Sibelius, as a flight of swans soared above his home in the Finnish forests. That shining vision grew into his Fifth Symphony, heard here in its original 1915 version, and from opening sunrise to unforgettable finish, few living conductors understand it better than our guest Thomas Dausgaard. First, though, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor – another great friend of the CBSO – hurls himself into Brahms’ tempestuous First Piano Concerto.

Sibelius' 5th Symphony

Symphony Hall in Birmingham

‘What beauty!’ declared Jean Sibelius, as a flight of swans soared above his home in the Finnish forests. That shining vision grew into his Fifth Symphony, heard here in its original 1915 version, and from opening sunrise to unforgettable finish, few living conductors understand it better than our guest Thomas Dausgaard. First, though, pianist Benjamin Grosvenor – another great friend of the CBSO – hurls himself into Brahms’ tempestuous First Piano Concerto.

Witness one of Europe's most exciting pianists as Mariam Batsashvili brings all the fire, poetry and breathtaking brilliance of Franz Liszt's First Piano Concerto to Bath. A prize-winner at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition, Mariam has captivated audiences worldwide with performances of extraordinary imagination and technical mastery; her playing is as exhilarating as it is deeply expressive.

with Mariam Batsashvili

The Forum Bath

SIBELIUS | Symphony No 2 | RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio Espagnol | LISZT Les Preludes

Macomb Center for the Performing Arts

Eric Garcia opens the season with a program of sweeping landscapes, fiery virtuosity, and irresistible rhythmic energy. Guest violinist Timothy Chooi takes center stage in Sibelius’ dramatic Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, framed by Smith’s The Star-Spangled Banner in B-flat, the flowing beauty of Smetana’s The Moldau, and Beethoven’s exhilarating Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92.

Beethoven's 7th

Boise State University

Start the season with a powerful and dramatic evening of orchestral favorites, led by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Ari Pelto. Sibelius’s Finlandia sets the stage with its soaring, cinematic sweep, followed by Wagner’s majestic music from Act III of Die Meistersinger. The night closes with Rachmaninoff’s electrifying Symphonic Dances – bold, colorful, and unforgettable.

Opening Night: Nordic Lights & Romantic Fire

Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center

In the darkest days of the Second World War, the 70-year-old Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a symphony that sounded like a vision of peace. From misty opening to visionary finish, the Fifth Symphony is Vaughan Williams doing what he does best: spacious, eloquent and rapturously beautiful. But it’s got drama, too, and this evening conductor Adam Hickox places it alongside two powerful and atmospheric 20th-century landscapes by Vaughan Williams’ contemporaries. Grażyna Bacewicz’s Overture is bold and defiant – the work of a woman who spoke with her own voice in communist Poland. And RPO Artist-in-Residence Liya Petrova explores the fire and ice of Sibelius’ mighty Violin Concerto: a gripping showcase for the ‘gorgeous sound’ (Sunday Times) of this award-winning violinist.

Sibelius Violin Concerto

Cadogan Hall

The legendary Sir John Eliot Gardiner will conduct the Budapest Festival Orchestra for the first time! The Honorary Doctor of the Liszt Academy and multiple Grammy Award-winning conductor rose to international fame mainly through his performances of early music, but he also enjoys exploring Romantic compositions. He conducts with “boundless energy,” to borrow a characterization from The Guardian, be it Joseph Haydn or Jean Sibelius, the composers featured in his program. Although the two composers arguably have little in common, the dual threads of patriotism and cosmopolitanism run through the concert. The evening’s centerpiece is a work from Haydn’s triumphant London period, composed following his release from decades of service to the Esterházy court. The program concludes with a Sibelius symphony inspired by an excursion to Italy. With the opening piece, BFO musicians will once again demonstrate their talents as a choir with a deeply moving performance of the heart-wrenching song by the Finnish composer.

Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the BFO

Müpa Budapest

Start the season with music that speaks for itself. Byron Hitchcock, our concertmaster, shines in Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, a piece full of sweeping melodies inspired by Finland’s landscapes. Corigliano’s Promenade Overture is lively and playful, while Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 blends drama and heartfelt beauty, showing the composer’s deep connection to his Bohemian roots

Music: The Purest Art

The Lincoln Center

Our 51st season opens with two audience favorites, the Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Johannes Brahms and the Sixth Symphony of Antonin Dvorak. Both are examples of the finest orchestral writing of the late 19th century, helping assure both composers of their place in history. The Variations are not, as advertised, on a theme by Haydn, yet Brahms and his publisher probably knew this. As the theme was believed by the public to be by the venerated composer, the name stuck (and likely helped sell the piece to audiences!). Dvorak’s Symphony no. 6 is an example of a composer at the top of his creative game, blending Czech folk elements with traditional symphonic writing to produce a wholly unique sound. Orchestras and audiences love both works, but they will also be enchanted by our opening piece, an overture to a little-known opera by Dame Ethel Smyth, an English composer not well known in America. Smyth was a fascinating woman, the first female composer to receive a damehood (the equivalent of a male being knighted). She also worked for the suffrage movement, even spending time in prison for her activities. Her Overture to the Wreckers is a wonderful example of late Victorian-era music, with hints of Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan and others, woven into a wholly original composition.

Two Classics and a Surprise!

University of Utah

This dazzling sonic journey explores powerful natural phenomena through music. Dalia Stasevska, admired for “unbridled, animated conducting” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) makes her SLSO debut with Debussy’s La Mer, a breathtaking evocation of a day on the ever-moving, wondrous sea. Multi-talented artist Aphrodite Patoulidou performs Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs and introduces Sibelius’ Luonnotar with an improvisation on the nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish keyed fiddle.

Debussy’s La Mer

Powell Hall

Join us for an opening night that sets the tone for an unforgettable season – bold, expressive, and full of life.

Bold Beginnings

Arkley Center for the Performing Arts

Get under the skin of Mozart’s last symphony, as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra retells the story of a masterwork.

In 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his last symphony.

We’re still not quite sure how he did it: creating a masterpiece so perfect that for more than two centuries, it has shared a name with the king of the gods. But why is it considered to be a masterpiece? Here to answer that question (and more) are presenter Leah Broad, Vasily Petrenko (conducting the RPO for the first time at Cadogan Hall) and the full Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with an entertaining guide to what makes Mozart tick. They’ll take the Symphony apart and show you how it works. And then they’ll put it back together, concluding the evening with a full performance.

Whether you’re a hardcore Mozart fan or a total newbie, it’s an experience that never fails to inspire.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

All three works were premiered in the United States, a fitting nod as the nation marks its 250th anniversary and reflects on artistic ties across continents and generations.

Sibelius, Higdon, and Bartók

You may well feel as though you’ve swapped the Queen Elizabeth Hall for a retreat in the Finnish countryside with this triumphant proclamation of nature in all its beauty.

Pekka Kuusisto, Ale Carr & Aurora Orchestra: Four Seasons

Southbank Centre

Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto joins forces with Aurora Orchestra for two of classical music’s greatest nature-inspired hits, with a sprinkling of Kuusisto’s signature experimental flair.

The natural world has proved a muse for many composers, but there’s arguably no more ecstatic end to a symphony than Sibelius’ painting of soaring swans. It will be impossible not to feel like you’ve swapped out the Queen Elizabeth Hall for a silent retreat in the Finnish countryside with this triumphant proclamation of nature in all its beauty.

From Finland to Italy, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is re-imagined for the 21st century, interspersed with tunes performed by Pekka Kuusisto and Ale Carr, most of them traditional, most of them Nordic. Folk dances from the Åre Swedish mountain range become the Apres-ski to Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’; a lazy Finnish summer evening unfurls in the form of a folk song before Vivaldi’s summer storm hits.

To open, Caroline Shaw’s Plan and Elevation, a driving yet reflective work inspired by nature and architectural drawings. A bird’s-eye “plan” shows the whole structure, while an “elevation” reveals its intricate details and ornaments – much as tonight’s improvisations illuminate music centuries old from a new angle.

Pekka Kuusisto: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons & Sibelius

Sibelius' music draws the audience into another world. In his violin concerto, the soloist is like a shaman, telling eternally valid Nordic stories, passed down through generations. We are proud that the soloist in this performance is the DR Symphony Orchestra's new concertmaster, Ludvig Gudim.

Samuel Lee & the Firebird

DR Koncerthuset

The music of American composer Gabriella Smith is indelibly linked to nature, marvelling at its beauty, terror and joy.

Sibelius Symphony No. 5

The Bridgewater Hall

When three of the most distinctive musical voices of our time – conductor and composer George Benjamin, pianist Bertrand Chamayou and soprano Barbara Hannigan – come together, a program full of intensity, imagination and refined drama emerges. Maurice Ravel opens the evening with rhythmic brilliance and Spanish glow in Alborada del Gracioso, before Jean Sibelius and his enigmatic Luonnotar lead us into a world of myth and creation. Unsuk Chin’s piano concerto follows with explosive energy and sparkling colours, and after the intermission we immerse ourselves in Benjamin’s own Lessons in Love and Violence – music that unites clarity and passion. Finally, we return to Ravel with Rapsodie espagnole, where the lessons of love conclude in dance, heat and seductive shadows.

Lessons in love

Berwaldhallen

SÆSONÅBNING – TETZLAFF & BARTÓK

Koncertsalen Alsion

The Baltic Sea Festival’s grand finale invites you to an evening of drama and rich sonorities. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra together with soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou, baritone Peter Mattei, and saxophonist Asya Fateyeva. The program opens with Erkki-Sven Tüür’s new saxophone concerto – a work that looks toward the future – before Sibelius’s monumental Kullervo draws us deep into the mythic world of the Finnish epic. A closing night where contemporary sound meets Nordic legend in a powerful musical encounter.

Fate & guilt

Oslo Kammermusikkfestival closing gala concert featuring a virtuoso programme performed by festival musicians in Marmorsalen.

Closing Gala

Sentralen

The Orchestra of the FNO has enchanted audiences for more than 60 years. Since 2024, its concerts have also delighted listeners at Musiikkitalo.

Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera @ Musiikkitalo

Musiikkitalo Concert Hall

Vivid, programmatic works by Sibelius and Prokofiev fill this heart-rending program. Sibelius’s stirring love letter to his homeland is paired with a suite from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, a musical retelling of Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece. Making her Cleveland Orchestra debut, conductor Tabita Berglund pairs these works with Sibelius’s impassioned Violin Concerto, performed by Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma.

Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet

Blossom Music Center

NUSO - Norsk Ungdomssymfoniorkester performs a program of sea-themed program music, a journey through music history conducted by Berit Cardas.

Voices from the Sea

Stavanger Konserthus

Our annual visit to Mikkeli Music Festival in Finland is a highlight in the Philharmonia’s concert calendar.

Mikkeli Music Festival 2026

This summer, Orchestre de l’Agora presents a series of three open-air and regional concerts featuring the program Fiddlers and Northern Folklores, under the direction of Nicolas Ellis. Joined by guest fiddlers Alexis Chartrand and Nicolas Babineau, the ensemble revisits traditional Quebec dances through original orchestrations, juxtaposing them with works by Grieg, Sibelius, Marcus Goddard, and Danish tunes from the Danish String Quartet. By blending traditional music with orchestral writing, this initiative celebrates the vitality of Quebec’s musical heritage while giving it a fresh perspective. A unifying project, deeply rooted in our cultural identity!

Fiddlers and Northern Folklores

Église Notre-Dame-de-l’Immaculée-Conception

Parc Anjou-sur-le-Lac

Théâtre de Verdure

Musik für 3 Streicher, a product of the composer’s mid-20s, sets out to encompass the span of human emotions and experience. Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt begin their expedition through the string trio repertoire with two movements from Wolfgang Rihm’s monumental work. Their programme also includes the remarkable Ricercari by Roman Haubenatock-Ramati, who escaped Nazi and Stalinist persecution to join General Anders’s Polish Army and survived the Second World War to become editor of new music for Universal Edition in Vienna.

Ilya Gringolts violin; Lawrence Power viola; Nicolas Altstaedt cello

‘Sensational’ 2025 Sibelius Competition-winner Sueye Park makes her Proms debut, joining John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as soloist in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. All fire and ice, a love song for the composer’s own instrument, it’s the Romantic concerto par excellence: deeply personal and powerfully expressive. Sibelius’s Nordic lakes meet the choppy ocean waters of Betsy Jolas’s Tales of a Summer Sea, and later the dark forests and tectonic stirrings of Strauss’s Nietzsche-inspired tone-poem Also sprach Zarathustra, its blazing orchestral sunrise made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also sprach Zarathustra

Royal Albert Hall

Conductor Laureate Carlos Kalmar returns for Sibelius’s majestic Symphony No. 2, an emblem of Finnish nationalism written at a time of cultural and linguistic suppression. Christopher Theofanidis’s Drum Circle makes its Chicago premiere, featuring the virtuosic musicians of Third Coast Percussion.

Sibelius Symphony No. 2

Millennium Park

The 30th Shibuya Afternoon Concert

We begin with Brahms’ ‘Tragic Overture’, which confronts darkness head-on. Composed in 1880 as the sombre counterpart to his ‘Academic Festival Overture’, it whips up a storm of emotional energy, embodying what Brahms called “the serious side of life”. 

Next is Sibelius’ haunting ‘Valse Triste’. Originally composed for a 1903 play, this melancholic waltz depicts a dying woman’s fevered dream, where she dances with memories and ghosts. At the end, four solo violins add a fragile, otherworldly coda. 

Shostakovich’s monumental Seventh Symphony completes the arc from despair to defiance. It was composed during the 1941 siege of Leningrad, a time of unimaginable suffering for citizens. This epic work transforms the nightmare of war – represented by the famous ‘invasion theme’ in the first movement – into ultimate victory. 

From Tragedy to Triumph

Smith Square Hall

In 2009, it landed at number 9 in the "ABC Classic 100 Symphony Countdown" – and rightly so: Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 is one of the most popular works in the symphonic repertoire today. Its grand finale made it a symbol of the struggle for independence from Russia in Finland. Sibelius himself never expressed a clear political interpretation – and yet this music strikes a chord: Between the sounds of nature, awakening, expansiveness, and power, a symphony of timeless significance unfolds.

Youth concert for the  9th Symphony concert

Music and Congress Hall Lübeck

The final symphony concert of the season presents a Scandinavian program with discoverable works from Sweden and Denmark, as well as a Finnish classic that, surprisingly, originated in Italy. Elfrida Andrée, born in 1841 in Visby on Gotland, was the first female composer in Sweden to venture into the realm of symphonic music. In 1894, she composed her only opera, "Fritiofs Saga," based on a libretto by Selma Lagerlöf, but it was never performed during her lifetime. The trombone concerto by Danish composer Launy Grøndahl from 1924 combines elements of Romanticism, Impressionism, and Nordic folklore and is one of the most significant contributions to the genre. In Lübeck, the piece will be played by the Philharmonic Orchestra's principal trombonist, Stephan Gerblinger.

9th  Symphony Concert

Concert with Ensemble MidtVest and this year's star soloist Sebastian Klinger. Look forward to experiencing an absolutely world-class cellist.

Nørre Vosborg: EMV and soloist Sebastian Klinger

Nørre Vosborg

We join RNCM student conductors and International Artist Diploma musicians for an afternoon of extraordinary music making in the BBC Philharmonic Studio.

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and RNCM: International Artist Diploma Performance 2

MediaCityUK

Music has long been a voice for resistance, remembrance and renewal.  In this striking and emotionally charged programme, the Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra explores how composers have responded to injustice, conflict, and the call for change.

Protest Notes

Opening concert for the 2026 International Carl Nielsen Competition (flute competition). Conductor Giordano Bellincampi. Soloists: Liya Petrova (violin, winner 2016), Asmus Hanke Frederiksen (baritone), Laura Helene Hansen (soprano). Performers: CNUS (Carl Nielsen Youth Symphony Orchestra). Program: Sibelius: Karelia Suite; Sibelius: Violin Concerto; Carl Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 (Sinfonia Espansiva).

Nielsen 3 – Carl Nielsen Competition Opening Concert

Odense Concert Hall

In 2026, we can once again open the doors to the international Carl Nielsen Competition; the competition where we both pay tribute to our great, world-class composer from Funen and the talented stars of tomorrow. Since its inception, the Carl Nielsen Competition has put Odense on the musical map, attracted some of the biggest names from abroad as judges and coaches, and a long list of the winners have become big guns on the international music scene. Now you will once again have the opportunity to see what the classical music world has to offer – and in 2026 it is the flute that is the protagonist of the competition. The competition offers three elimination rounds for the 24 hopeful talents who have made it through the eye of the needle before we can reveal the absolute winner of the competition. It will all be spiced up with community singing events, talks about music and Carl Nielsen and much more.

Nielsen's 3.

Each year from January until June, about 60 young people meet at the Rudolfinum to create a beautiful joint concert under the guidance of players from the Czech Philharmonic (and with support from their teachers). This time, the project participants are from the regions of Hradec Králové, Moravian Silesia, Pilsen, Zlín, and Prague. The charismatic conductor Petr Altrichter will lead the concluding concert.

Joint Orchestra of Music School Pupils and the Czech Philharmonic Musicians

Rudolfinum

Burning Bright

Congregation Beth Israel

Alexander Malofeev's debut was brilliant! The pianist stepped in for the ill Evgeny Kissin at a concert of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra - and the audience could hardly contain itself. The Frankfurt audience rewarded Malofeev's virtuoso playing with thunderous applause, not so much for its power as for its melody and transparency. It was high time for the 23-year-old to give a recital at the Alte Oper. Malofeev readily admits that he feels most at home alone on stage. He then gives an insight into his world of sound: "It's always my own space, even when hundreds of people are listening. I let them in. I like to create my own space. In the Mozart Hall, Malofeev creates a sound space that spans Scandinavia, France, Vienna and his Russian homeland: Characteristic pieces glowing in intense colours.

Alexander Malofeev, piano

Alte Oper

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is, so to speak, the artistic breeding ground for many of the world's top conductors: Greats such as Adrian Boult, Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons, and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla spent crucial years of their careers leading this ensemble. Since April 2023, Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada has been at the helm of the English musicians—and that's promising!

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Frank Peter Zimmermann / Kazuki Yamada

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

The sixth and final part of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Artist-in-Residence also concludes the 2025/2026 season at the Swedish Radio Concert Hall, Berwaldhallen. The Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki initially leads the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius’s tone poem The Oceanides, followed by Salonen’s own cello concerto with the acclaimed cellist Nicolas Altstaedt. Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, one of the greatest symphonies of the 20th century, which the composer himself described as a tribute to the strength and beauty of the human spirit, concludes the concert.

Mälkki & Altstaedt interprets Salonen

Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra

Northwestern University

Leading French clarinettist Raphaël Sévère’s phenomenal rise on the international platform was marked by his Victoires de la Musique Classique nomination when he was aged just 15. Since then, he has been impressing audiences around the world with his technical mastery, translucent tone and mesmerising musicality. He will be returning to Hong Kong for an unmissable concert with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and celebrated Estonian conductor Olari Elts on 30 May, playing Nielsen’s captivating Clarinet Concerto. The rest of the programme will see an evocative pairing of Nielsen’s and Sibelius’ works surrounding Pan, the mythical Greek god of wilderness, as well as the fresh and infectious energy of Sibelius’ Symphony No 3.

Raphaël Sévère Plays Nielsen Clarinet Concerto

Hong Kong City Hall

Join us at the Southbank Centre for the launch of our latest Virtual Orchestra experience – an exciting, hands-on journey that invites you to pick up a virtual instrument and play alongside the full symphony orchestra. Designed with families in mind, this immersive experience welcomes curious kids, first-time concertgoers and seasoned music lovers alike.

Play along: Virtual Orchestra

Nicolò Umberto Foron - Emanuel Ax

Teatro Auditorium Manzoni

Sibelius Iron Works Vaughan Williams

Gasteig HP8

The Residentie Orkest will bring the season to a grand close at Amare with two impressive works. Jean Sibelius's Violin Concerto is infused with the spirit of Finnish nature - you can see the mist rising over dark lakes, hear the echoes of deep forests and feel the biting cold of the rugged landscape in every note of this chillingly beautiful work. Artist in residence Bomsori Kim will bring the slow rhythms of nature to life with her masterful violin playing, under the baton of chief conductor Jun Märkl.

Bruckner & Sibelius

Amare

Santtu-Matias Rouvali & Christoph Sietzen

After writing two light but entertaining violin concertos, Saint-Saëns upped his game in 1880. In his Violin Concerto No. 3, he delivered a deliciously scored masterpiece characterised by its brilliant solo part, building intensity, room-stilling slow movement and finale inspired by the music of the country it was written in: Spain. Alexandra Conunova plays perhaps the greatest French violin concerto in between music that finds hope from grief: Ravel’s etched memorials to fallen comrades and the symphony in which Sibelius wrestles the most inspiring optimism from music born of tragedy.

University of Oxford

Prepare to be dazzled and amazed! The stars come out early when our incredible Young Soloist winners take the stage to astound you with their mad skills. Always a fan favorite!

Embark on a journey from darkness to light with Sibelius’s 5th Symphony, as the breathtaking landscape of his homeland unfolds, culmimating in the soaring swan theme of the radiant finale. An uplifting “Finnish” to our season!

Sparkling Young Stars, A Shimmering Symphony

Beachwood High School

After his brilliant performance at the Cathedral Concert in June 2024, conductor Jan Söderblom returns to the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. Together with pianist Alexander Melnikov, he promises fireworks in Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto. This youthful work, later revised by the composer, dazzles with grand Romantic gestures and virtuosic piano brilliance. Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony keeps us in the high-Romantic spirit but takes us across the Atlantic. Amy Beach sought a distinct musical voice for the United States, much like Dvořák. Drawing on her English, Irish, and Scottish heritage, her symphony overflows with warmth and inviting melodies. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra is delighted to share these captivating sounds with you.

Rachmaninov with Alexander Melnikov

Queen Elisabeth Hall

TivoliVredenburg

In this striking exploration of Nordic soundscapes, Chief Conductor John Storgårds will flex every Finnish musical muscle as he leads the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from the icy beauty of the Arctic to a Danish climax that revels in the raw power of human resilience.

Northern Lights

BBC Philharmonic - Northern Lights

When Claudio Flückiger lifts his horn, a world of sonic beauty and virtuosity opens up. As solo hornist in the Royal Danish Orchestra, he masters the instrument's warm, singable tone and its powerful expression – qualities that are indispensable in the music of Richard Strauss.


Flückiger, educated in Zurich and with a career that has taken him through the Opernhaus Zurich and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, has a particular love for Strauss's works. In fact, the composer's incidental music was one of the reasons he chose to become an opera hornist. Tonight he will appear as a soloist in Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 1, a work written with love and deep understanding of the instrument. Strauss dedicated the concerto to his father, Franz Strauss, one of the most famous horn players of the time, and chose to call the orchestral version the “Waldhornkonzert” – a reference to the French horn his father preferred to play.

The solo hornist of the Royal Chapel plays Strauss

Alsion Concert Hall

Who better to channel the gleaming, frosty beauty of Finland's most cherished composer, Jean Sibelius, than conductor Hannu Lintu, a celebrated fellow Finn? Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi, who has dazzled audiences across the globe, brings warmth to this program with Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.

Lintu Conducts Sibelius

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

Clarinetist Lauri Sallinen is known for breaking down barriers between the arts. The concert, conducted by Izabele Jankauzkaiten, will feature no fewer than six works, including Lotta Wennäkoski's Ele.

Gestures

Espoo Cultural Centre

Cijing Zuo, violin

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

We are convinced that humans need music like they need air to breathe. In the 7th symphony concert, Moritz Gnann returns to the podium of the State Orchestra after his successful Kassel opera debut last season. This time he dedicates himself to works that explore the forces of nature – from storms and thunderstorms to the atmospheric lightness of the air.

7th Symphony Concert - Air

Congress Palace Kassel City Hall

5th Academic Concert 2025/26

Gewandhaus

Khatia Buniatishvili is famous for her highly emotional playing and for fully illuminating the inner dramas of the works she interprets. The program of her concert with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields provides the perfect setting for this. Even the opening works by Jean Sibelius, his famous "Valse triste" and the ethereal "Scene with Cranes," are taken from incidental music. Joseph Haydn's Farewell Symphony tells its own unique drama: the resourceful composer supposedly conceived the work specifically to subtly hint to his employer that the orchestra musicians would like to finally take a vacation. And there's no doubt that the solo concerts of the brilliant opera composer Mozart also contain a fair amount of drama.

Khatia Buniatishvili / Academy of St. Martin in the Fields

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will join forces once again with Academy of St Martin in the Fields for a concert in Hamburg’s stunning Elbphilharmonie directed by Tomo Keller. The concert will feature Khatia performing Mozart’s dark and stormy Piano Concerto no. 20 contrasting with his bright and spirited Piano Concerto no. 23, which were both released as a recording with ASMF in 2024.

ASMF & Khatia Buniatishvili GERMANY

In its 40 year history, Berkshire Music Trust has proudly supported children and young people to develop their passion for music. The Berkshire Youth Symphony Orchestra is formed of some of the most talented and dedicated young musicians in Berkshire.

Composer

Jean Sibelius

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 10, 2024 - Apr 9, 2027

Myths & Mountains · Annapolis Symphony Orchestra

Aug 20, 2026 - Mar 9, 2027

Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera @ Musiikkitalo · Finnish National Opera and Ballet

Nov 4, 2026

Guildhall Symphony Orchestra: Hannah Kendall, Shostakovich & Sibelius · Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Nov 5, 2026

London Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Adès · Barbican Centre

Nov 5, 2026

Sibelius, Nørgård and Adès · London Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Oct 29, 2026

Nobu Returns · Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Oct 25, 2026

Northern Spirits: Sibelius Symphony No. 2 · Diablo Symphony Orchestra

About

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