Name: A Cosmic Voyage: Symphony in Space
Start: 2026-04-18T19:30:00
Location: Winspear Centre

John Morris Russell

Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

Rejoice! Handel's treasured sacred work, which has long been a beloved holiday staple, returns to the Winspear stage. This classic Christmas tradition, composed in 1741, will put you in the holiday mood with its splendid arias, powerful recitatives, and glorious choral sections, including the famous "Hallelujah" chorus. Featuring the Richard Eaton Singers.

Handel's Messiah

Winspear Centre

Let the spirit of the season sweep you away with our annual Very Merry Pops concert! A beloved family tradition, this concert will transport you back to your childhood with all of your favourite Christmas and holiday carols

Hosted by one of our favourite guest conductors, Bob Bernhardt, and featuring the return of internationally acclaimed soprano Mikaela Bennett, and some of Edmonton's finest choirs, this evening will be jam-packed with dazzling holiday classics like “O Come, All Ye Faithful”, “Angels We Have Heard on High”, Sleigh Ride, “Silent Night”, a suite of Hannukah songs, “O Holy Night”, and the unforgettable Musicological Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas. There will even be a sing-along so you can join in on the festivities!

A Very Merry Pops

Hear your favourite music from the big screen performed live by your Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Bring the whole family to the Winspear Centre for a magical experience that you won’t forget. This concert is perfect for movie lovers of any generation!

Hollywood for the Holidays

The Vancouver Symphony’s Music Director Otto Tausk makes his Edmonton debut conducting a Mozart masterpiece - his Sinfonia concertante - music that historian Alfred Einstein wrote “dropped from heaven.” Written when Mendelssohn was just 15 years old, his First Symphony is filled with energy and youthful passion, reflecting his ideal that “the essence of beauty is unity in variety.” Manitoba-born Jocelyn Morlock called her mesmerizing Strange Loop “whimsical and fun/frenetic” music where “despite movement, one always ends up where one started.”

Mozart, Mendelssohn & Morlock

Experience the heartwarming story, Kiwis Can't Play the Violin, by Pierre Rivard alongside an enchanting full-orchestral score by Emilie Lebel (world premiere). Follow Kiwi on a journey to get a violin and join the orchestra, overcoming challenges and learning about the wonders that encouragement can accomplish.

Kiwis Can't Play the Violin

Tony DeSare's signature vocal and robust piano style pay tribute to the iconic songs of Billy Joel. Generations of Billy Joel fans will experience full symphonic orchestrations with Tony's unique take on some of his most beloved hits including "Just the Way You Are", "Piano Man", "New York State of Mind", "Only the Good Die Young", "Movin Out" "My Life", "You May Be Right" "Don't Ask Me Why", and many more.

The Billy Joel Songbook

The Four Seasons, four evocative violin concerti by the Venetian composer, violinist, poet, and cleric Antonio Vivaldi (affectionately known as the Red Priest because of his flaming red hair), are considered the crown jewels of the Italian baroque. Dmitri Shostakovich wrote of the 1960 quartet on which the haunting Chamber Symphony is based, “When I die, no one will write music in my memory, so I decided to write it myself.” Heinrich Biber’s imaginative Battaglia is an early baroque soundscape of battle preparations, blunted by drunken musketeer songs, and war, ending with a mournful lament.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

Following their thrilling initial collaboration in 2024, ESO Music Director Jean-Marie Zeitouni and award-winning Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko reunite to perform Johannes Brahms’ towering Second Piano Concerto alongside Bright Sheng's entrancing orchestral works Prelude and The Black Swan in honour of the Lunar New Year.

Jean-Marie & Martini

After his unforgettable debut in October 2024, pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko (of Salmon Arm, BC) returns to perform the work with which he won the 2024 Leeds Piano Competition – Brahms' epic Piano Concerto No. 2. Wagner's Prelude to his innovative opera Tristan and Isolde conveys melodramatic longing with aching harmonic progressions and unmatched emotional intensity. Tchaikovsky's tone poem of Francesca da Rimini’s tragic tale completes this romantic program steeped in passion, drama, and doomed love.

Forbidden Love: Brahms, Tchaikovsky & Wagner

Celebrated British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor returns after a 12-year absence to perform Benjamin Britten’s energetic Piano Concerto, written when the composer was 24 and known for its rhythmic drive and inventive orchestration. At its premiere, a critic wrote cryptically of Brahms’ final symphony, “It is like a dark well; the longer we look into it, the more brightly the stars shine back." Malcolm Forsyth wrote his celebratory Jubilee Overture in 1964 when he was 28, four years before he moved to Edmonton and became a member of the ESO. Don’t miss this intriguing concert juxtaposing music of youthful exuberance and wise experience.

Benjamin Grosvenor Plays Britten

Experience an exciting performance that pays tribute to the great divas of the Broadway stage! Three leading ladies, including Glinda and Elphaba from Wicked and Mary Poppins herself, light up the stage in an evening of Broadway showstoppers. Hear soaring music from classics like My Fair Lady and West Side Story, to recent must-see shows, including Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, and more.

The 3 Broadway Divas

Beethoven subtitled his sixth Symphony “Pastorale - Recollections of Country Life” and filled it with innovative orchestral depictions of nature, including birdsong, a flowing stream, and a thunderstorm. Camille Saint-Saëns’ philosophy that “form is the essence of art” is wonderfully realized in his compact and eloquent Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring Montreal-born Jean-Guihen Queyras in his long overdue Edmonton debut.

Beethoven & Beer

The ingenuity and courage of the 1960s missions to the Moon sparked a spirit of wonderment in the world’s creative community. Films and TV shows had their own “space race” that included glorious and inspiring music that lives far beyond those original productions.