Saxophone virtuoso Branford Marsalis returns to Orchestra Hall for jazz-infused showpieces, and Music Director Jader Bignamini leads popular musical postcards by Bernstein and Gershwin capturing city vibes, Cuban beats, and the bustling cafés and streets of Paris. A celebratory fanfare by Joan To...

Shakespeare inspired many thrilling orchestral odes. Music Director Jader Bignamini leads dances from Bernstein’s "West Side Story" and Tchaikovsky’s "Romeo & Juliet" Fantasy Overture, two starkly different takes on star-crossed lovers. Moved by "Othello" and "Macbeth," Coleridge-Taylor and Verdi...

The sea inspires high-risk, high-reward music-making. Newly appointed DSO Principal Guest Conductor Tabita Berglund, “one of Europe’s greatest promises” ("Helsingin Sanomat," Finland) leads sea-inspired scenes by Benjamin Britten plus Jean Sibelius’s take on a Finnish epic. Pekka Kuusisto, who “s...

Music Director Laureate Leonard Slatkin takes the DSO on a musical joyride. Hold on to your seat for Prokofiev’s bold, brassy, and technically marvelous Fifth Symphony—it’s the piece that put the composer on the cover of "Time" magazine. Olga Kern launches into the rollercoaster thrills and lavis...

A constellation of stars shines at Orchestra Hall. British conductor Alpesh Chauhan brings “genuinely exciting stuff” ("The Times," London) to music by fellow Brits, and cellist Johannes Moser dazzles with Saint-Saëns. The star of the show is Holst’s "The Planets"—one of the most exciting and ins...

From the dramatic opening trumpet solo to one of the most serenely heartfelt symphonic statements ever created, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is an exercise in extremes with the power of the orchestra fully realized. More than a century earlier, another Austrian composer set the wheels of dramatic inte...

Music Director Jader Bignamini gets us into the holiday spirit with not one, but two Nutcrackers. Tchaikovsky’s ballet music is a beloved favorite, and Duke Ellington really makes it swing. Grammy Award nominee Carlos Simon puts dance at the heart of celebration and guest soloist Ray Chen’s “joy ...

Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring" is a heart-pounding tour-de-force for the DSO. An otherworldly bassoon fills Orchestra Hall as various instruments interject. Suddenly, the raw and unstoppable dance begins. Francesca Dego’s “verve, and an evident delight in the unexpected,” ("Gramophone") come throu...

"For me, personally, music has been a way to inspire others," says violinist Randall Goosby. The American virtuoso returns to Orchestra Hall with music by Florence Price. Conductor Christian Reif debuts with the DSO, leading a new orchestral fantasy by Jimmy López Bellido, "one of the most intere...

Experience the timeless delights and drama of Bizet’s "Carmen" in concert at Orchestral Hall. Jader Bignamini leads an all-star cast with the DSO in a performance celebrating the famous opera’s 150th anniversary. Mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges has “the allure, fiery stage presence, and a stunning vo...