From the quicksilver charms of Mercury to the mystical stillness of Neptune, The Planets of Gustav Holst offer an immersive tour of the vast solar system. Composer in Residence James Lee III peers through the open roof of a festive sukkah and beholds the even greater distance to Orion’s Nebula, a nursery for newborn stars in the constellation that has captivated humans for millennia. Anna Clyne’s saxophone concerto takes us out of the ordinary world and into a fantastical realm ruled by a wailing banshee.

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The Planets with Heyward

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Approaching Mozart’s music with a presence that is “elegantly unruffled” (The New York Times), Conrad Tao illuminates the subtleties of his forebear’s dramatic Piano Concerto No. 20. For the young Polish composer Lutosławski, threads of local folk music and lessons from centuries past converge to make his Concerto for Orchestra an ear-tickling marvel of mid-century modernism. An interlude from Benjamin Britten’s breakthrough opera provides another angle of emotional mastery from a musician wise beyond his years. 

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 featuring Tao and Heyward

The Music Center at Strathmore

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra welcomes the Year of the Snake with its third annual Lunar New Year performance! After two successful years in Baltimore, the BSO is expanding its Lunar New Year celebration to North Bethesda at The Music Center at Strathmore for the very first time. Join the BSO and special guests for these family-friendly events featuring cultural performances and activities.

Lunar New Year

Maurice Ravel is lauded today as a titan of orchestration and composition, but his artistry was underappreciated during his lifetime. As we celebrate his 150th birthday, the BSO pays tribute to his status as a giant in the art of making orchestras sound glorious. Whether drawing inspiration from his mother’s native Spain or the elegance of a Viennese waltz, Ravel’s every gesture is a marvel of energy and aural delight. His mastery of symphonic orchestration has shaped everything in his wake, from the younger Russian admirer Prokofiev to the GRAMMY®-nominated Chinese American composer Zhou Tian.

A Ravel Anniversary & Prokofiev Violin Concerto

Join us in celebration of Black History Month with a free community performance at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, an indispensable monument to Baltimore's rich cultural history.

Symphony In The City: Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Cristian Măcelaru brings Romanian flair to music from his homeland and beyond. Simon Trpčeski, the Macedonian pianist favored for “his combination of deft, subtle musicianship allied with virtually infallible fingers" (The Washington Post), romps through Rachmaninoff’s hearty First Piano Concerto. Superstar American composer Jessie Montgomery offers alluring Snapshots in a score co-commissioned by the BSO, and Stravinsky appears in full neoclassical regalia with the debonair Symphony in C. Capped by Enescu’s intoxicating Romanian Rhapsody, complete with local drinking songs, it will leave you wanting to raise a glass to Măcelaru and company to shout — as Romanians do — “Noroc!”

Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto & Stravinsky

Jessie Montgomery, in collaboration with soprano Julia Bullock, drew from a 19th-century anthology of spirituals to create a work that articulates a powerful expression of their shared experience as Black Americans. Bullock returns for Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, with Music Director Jonathon Heyward steering the BSO through this dreamy score all the way to its heavenly, melodious finale. Dvořák's concert overture is a joyous, exuberant celebration of life, transporting the listener into the wild clamor of a carnival at nightfall.

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Heyward

University of Maryland

In a surge of passion and drama, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony traces a clear narrative of darkness to light, probing the eternal questions of fate and faith. A hallmark of the violin repertoire, Berg's concerto delves into a mysterious, autumnal sound world, played to perfection by celebrated virtuoso Augustin Hadelich. Just as Berg sought spiritual solace by quoting a chorale by J.S. Bach, Martinů draws upon Beethoven's Fifth and the St. Wenceslas Chorale in this memorial to a Nazi massacre, both a tender hymn and a fervent prayer.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony & Augustin Hadelich

In this special tribute to Duke Ellington, BSO Music Director Jonathon Heyward celebrates the iconic jazz legend's philosophy of music "beyond category," intermingling America's greatest native art form with classical symphonic traditions.

Heyward Pays Tribute to Ellington

The young Spanish conductor Roberto González-Monjas makes his BSO debut with a testament to the universal power of music, culminating in a rare reading of Mendelssohn’s deeply spiritual “Reformation” Symphony.  Bartók's Third Piano Concerto, finished in his final days, peers into the unknown with grace and humility, qualities brought to the forefront through the sensitive artistry of the Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son. The British composer Hannah Kendall harnesses ordinary sounds and everyday objects in an imaginative new work.

Mendelssohn & Bartók

In this legendary rendering by Rimsky-Korsakov, a soaring violin embodies the seductive voice of Scheherazade, while Ravel’s kaleidoscopic orchestration conveys the all-absorbing tales of One Thousand and One Nights. Composer and pianist Gabriela Montero combines forces with Music Director Laureate Marin Alsop in Montero’s uproarious and fun Piano Concerto No. 1, “Latin,” complete with a mambo and a pajarillo dance from her native Venezuela. Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz kicks off the party with a scintillating tribute to dance halls of Mexico City.

Scheherazade, Alsop, & Montero

Experienced Baltimore singers are invited to join Baltimore Choral Arts* at the Peabody Institute for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Baltimore’s own internationally renowned conductor Marin Alsop. We will rehearse and perform as an audience choir while Marin Alsop conducts and coaches graduate students and instrumentalists.

Peabody conducting studio alumnus and BCAS Music Director Anthony Blake Clark will coach the audience choir in two sessions before the event. On the evening of the Come-and-Sing at Peabody, you’ll be one of hundreds singing this transcendent piece as we are led by Marin and her brilliant conducting studio!

Beethoven 9 Come-and-Sing

Johns Hopkins University

A keen student of history, Brahms took 14 painstaking years to mount his First Symphony atop the shoulders of his hero, Beethoven. Now, Music Director Jonathon Heyward puts his own stamp on this essential pillar of the orchestral repertoire. In a commission from BSO Composer in Residence James Lee III, a new Cello Concerto features the talents of Joshua Roman, whose electrifying interpretations of solo repertoire draw from his creative perspective as a composer and improviser. An early overture by England’s Edward Elgar depicts a storied account of battles and royal intrigue from the 1300s. 

Brahms Symphony No. 1 with Heyward

Since making her BBC Proms debut on a televised broadcast 40 years ago leading the London Mozart Players in Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, British conductor Dame Jane Glover has been a world-renowned interpreter of the Classical masters and a champion of gender equity. Her thoughtful, informed interpretation allows Mozart and Schubert to shine with full transparency. BSO principal bassoon Harrison Miller injects impish humor into the neoclassical Bassoon Concerto by Nino Rota, the versatile composer of concert and film music best known for his Godfather scores. 

Mozart & Schubert

Discover enchanting new sides of Tchaikovsky through music from his sublime ballet, Sleeping Beauty, and Francesca da Rimini, a symphonic poem inspired by a love triangle in Dante’s Inferno. BSO concertmaster Jonathan Carney performs Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, bringing to light a free-flowing virtuosic showcase that emerged from the peak of Romantic grandeur in Imperial Russia. Conductor Xian Zhang continues to advocate for Chinese American composers, beginning the program with an evocative work by the prolific Chen Yi.

Zhang Conducts Tchaikovsky

BSO Music Director Jonathon Heyward leads a dynamic program possessing a strong sense of place. Completed while under siege, Beethoven melds Viennese sophistication with musical heroism amidst the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Smetana's patriotic tribute to his homeland solidified his reputation as the "father of Czech music," a rousing and lush ode to the rivers and mountains surrounding Prague, culminating in a triumphant hymn. Composer in Residence James Lee III unveils the world premiere of his BSO-commissioned Concerto for Orchestra, channeling his own love of Baltimore in a daring and evocative new work.

Orchestral events in Baltimore, MD

The Planets with Heyward

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Mozart’s Piano Concerto N...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Lunar New Year

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

A Ravel Anniversary & Pro...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Symphony In The City: Reg...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Rachmaninoff’s First Pian...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony ...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphon...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Heyward Pays Tribute to E...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Mendelssohn & Bartók

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Scheherazade, Alsop, & Mo...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven 9 Come-and-Sing...

Baltimore Choral Arts Society

Brahms Symphony No. 1 wit...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Mozart & Schubert

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Zhang Conducts Tchaikovsk...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Beethoven Emperor Piano C...

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra