Music Director Jader Bignamini begins the 2023–­2024 Season with the first overture by Louise Farrenc, a pioneering French Romantic composer. Gil Shaham, whose "mastery has only grown more profound," ("The San Francisco Chronicle") dives into the majesties of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Two me...

Simon Trpčeski brings a "fusion of mature interpretation and youthful passion" ("The Telegraph," London) to a concerto Rachmaninoff started in his teens and revised later in life. It took Brahms over 20 years to complete his First Symphony, a genre-changing work of passion and unrelenting drive. ...

Violinist Clara-Jumi Kang is an artist "as ready to caress as to attack" ("The Strad"). In her DSO debut, she takes command in Korngold's gorgeously cinematic concerto. We hear new "feisty, energy-packed" music ("The Guardian") by composer Arlene Sierra, and Zemlinsky's programmatic adventure tak...

"Petrushka" instantly drops us into another world; Stravinsky's orchestral classic is a wild torrent of vivid rhythms and charismatic vignettes, each more colorful than the last. Falla's delightful "Three-Cornered Hat," on the other hand, introduces us to a hilarious love triangle. Celebrated cel...

Celebrated French conductor Fabien Gabel leads orchestral showstoppers direct from France, plus a world premiere by Michigan-born composer James Lee III. "Shades of Unbroken Dreams" honors the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream"—a speech he famously delivered in Wash...

"The blues helps you remember back before the troubles on hand," says Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and multi-Grammy Award–winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. "They carry you on the wings of angels to a timeless higher ground." Music Director Jader Bignamini leads Marsalis’s Blues Symphony and w...

"I've put my whole soul into this," Tchaikovsky said of his last symphony. Rachmaninoff put his genius, a famous theme, and allusions to a deal with the devil into his Rhapsody. Pianist Sergei Babayan plays it "full speed ahead to the very edge of a cliff" ("BBC Music Magazine"). From the epicent...

The DSO delights audiences with musical pairs: two works by Bach, one featuring the famous Air and the other a concerto for two soloists featuring DSO Principal Oboe Alexander Kinmonth and Associate Concertmaster Kimberly Kaloyanides-Kennedy. "Music from Paris"—the First Symphony by Joseph Bologn...

Conductor Osmo Vänskä, recognized as one of the world’s greatest Sibelius interpreters, leads a path through the Nordic ice and soaring splendor of the composer's Second Symphony. Michigan-based Henry Dorn's "Transitions" takes another journey through the ravenous wildness of change. Renowned Eng...

Classical Roots has celebrated the contributions of African American composers and artists for nearly fifty years. This season, we hear new music from Shelley Washington, who focuses "on exploring emotions and intentions by finding their root cause." Saxophonist Steven Banks, "one of the transfor...

Pianist Inon Barnatan brings “uncommon sensitivity” ("The New Yorker") to everything he plays, including Schumann’s only piano concerto, a work inspired and premiered by the composer’s wife, Clara. Elgar’s "Enigma" Variations is a series of heartfelt impressions of dear friends, each movement as ...

"There is an ever-greater depth to [Yuja's] musicianship, drawing you into the world of each composer with compelling immediacy" ("Financial Times," London). The superstar pianist returns for Bartók's Second Piano Concerto. The organ in Saint-Saëns's Third Symphony adds a thrilling dimension of s...