Yo-Yo Ma and More Set for Minnesota Orchestra's 2025-26 Season

The Minnesota Orchestra and Music Director Thomas Søndergård have announced plans for the Orchestra’s 2025-26 season, a year which includes performances by star artists from cellist Yo-Yo Ma to violinist Leila Josefowicz; collaborations with some of America’s great mezzos including Jamie Barton, Michelle DeYoung and Joyce DiDonato; the return of the acclaimed January Nordic Soundscapes festival; opera-in-concert performances of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle; and a programming thread exploring “American-made” music in many varieties—as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Søndergård will lead 12 weeks of concerts during the season, opening with September 18-19 performances featuring the Minnesota Orchestra debut of towering American mezzo Joyce DiDonato—described as “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. His final concerts of the season, June 12-13, 2026, will spotlight another debut: Ukrainian-born pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk in Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, bookended by two American masterpieces, blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon and The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives.

The season encompasses programming designed for concertgoers of all ages and interests, including Classical, Chamber Music, Live at Orchestra Hall, Holiday, Young People’s Concerts, Relaxed Family Concerts and Sensory-Friendly Concert offerings. Take a look at the full lineup below!

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CLASSICAL CONCERTS

Søndergård's Third Season

The Orchestra’s 123rd concert season—and Søndergård’s third season—will kick off on Saturday, September 13, with a family-friendly Orchestra Hall Open House that offers backstage tours and live performances. In the following weeks, Thomas Søndergård will take the podium for two celebratory weeks of season opening concerts. In the first set, September 18-19, Grammy Award-winning mezzo Joyce DiDonato interprets Hector Berlioz’s brilliant song cycle Les Nuits d’été. The concerts also feature Leonard Bernstein’s glittering Candide Overture; a 2017 work (Céléphaïs from The Cities of Lovecraft) by French composer Guillaume Connesson inspired by the wild fantasy world of American author H.P. Lovecraft; and Richard Strauss’ opulent Der Rosenkavalier Suite—which received its premiere in New York in 1944.  

Søndergård’s second set of concerts, September 26-27, will spotlight Principal Cello Anthony Ross in two works: Leonard Bernstein’s exquisite Three Meditations from Mass and a world premiere from Steve Heitzeg called EcoSaga (Concerto in Three Landscapes). The concert opens with Joan Tower’s 2004 work Made in America, and closes with a great orchestral showpiece by Bartók, the Concerto for Orchestra, which premiered in Boston in 1944, just a year before the composer’s death. 

January 2026 will bring a fresh iteration of the Nordic Soundscapes festival, offering three different programs across five concerts in ten days exploring northern Europe’s orchestral music of past and present. The festival opens January 8-9, 2026, with the wind-swept grandeur of Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto performed by James Ehnes, in a program bookended by Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Nyx and Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s First Symphony. In the second week, January 16-17, soprano Lauren Snouffer makes her Minnesota Orchestra debut with Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen’s song cycle let me tell you, a retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia’s perspective that uses only the 481-word vocabulary given to her by Shakespeare. Søndergård also conducts Excelsior! by Sweden’s Wilhelm Stenhammar and the First Symphony of Sibelius. As in the inaugural 2025 festival, Nordic Soundscapes 2026 will include a chamber music concert and an immersive sampling of pre-concert activities that celebrate Nordic culture, cuisine, cocktails and design. 

Søndergård’s affinity for vocal and opera repertoire will come to light in three programs throughout the season: November 21-22 performances of Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem with the Minnesota Chorale and vocal soloists that also feature poignant music from Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute alumni Henry Dorn and Anna Clyne; a May 8-9, 2026, opera-in-concert program of Bartók’s captivating psychological thriller Bluebeard’s Castle, headlined by mezzo Michelle DeYoung and baritone John Lundgren as the doomed couple in a fairytale gone wrong; and June 4-6, 2026, performances of American composer Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs that will spotlight the powerful mezzo Jamie Barton—described by The New York Times “as leader of a new generation of opera stars”—in her Minnesota Orchestra debut. 

Janai Brugger, another top American vocal talent, will join Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra for the latest version of the Listening Project, an initiative the Orchestra launched in 2021 to perform and record the music of underrepresented composers. Held on Friday, May 1, 2026, More to Hear: The Listening Project concert will spotlight Brugger—who is currently appearing in Moby Dick at the Metropolitan Opera—singing a collection of Florence Price songs called The Heart of a Woman, among other works. All works on the program will be filmed and available to watch for free on the Orchestra’s YouTube channel.

A range of eclectic programs across the season will also see Søndergård conducting Berlioz’s brilliant Symphonie fantastique (Nov 2025); Anton Bruckner’s monumental Symphony No. 8 (March 2026); the Edward Elgar Cello Concerto featuring legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a special one-night only concert (Mar 2026); and piano concertos by Thomas Adès and Maurice Ravel with Kirill Gerstein (Mar 2026). Additionally, the Orchestra’s youngest concertgoers will have a chance to interact with Søndergård when he leads a Relaxed Family Concert, Symphonic Storytelling, on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

Touring and Recording 

Søndergård will lead the Orchestra in a concert at the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium on November 15, 2025, with members of the Orchestra participating in master classes and special sessions with students as part of the experience. The visit marks Søndergård’s first regional touring with the Orchestra and revives a relationship with the University of Iowa that dates back to a 1909 concert on campus led by the Orchestra’s founding Music Director Emil Oberhoffer. In total, five previous Minnesota Orchestra music directors have led the Orchestra at the University of Iowa; the last visit was in 1982 with Sir Neville Marriner. 

The Orchestra will also issue its first recording under Thomas Søndergård’s baton in November 2025—an album featuring British composer Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel Symphony and his Violin Concerto, Concentric Paths, featuring Leila Josefowicz. Set for release on the PENTATONE label, the works were recorded live at Orchestra Hall in September 2025 concerts.  

The Orchestra will continue to offer livestreamed concerts and digital extras as part of its Emmy Award-winning This Is Minnesota Orchestra series; the specific 2025-26 concerts to be broadcast will be announced at a later date. Additionally, Minnesota Orchestra Friday evening classical concerts will be broadcast regionally on YourClassical MPR stations, continuing a longtime partnership with Minnesota Public Radio.

Guest Artists and Conductors 

Throughout the season, the Orchestra will be joined by many stellar guest soloists, including return performances with Leonidas Kavakos as both conductor and violinist (Oct 2025); violinist Benjamin Beilman in Karol Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 (Nov 2025); Aaron Diehl performing Made of Tunes, a recent piano concerto written especially for him by American composer Timo Andres (New Year’s Eve/Day); pianist Inon Barnatan with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Mar 2026), and Leila Josefowicz interpreting John Adams’ Violin Concerto, a seminal American work that was originally premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra and former Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis in 1994. 

Debuting soloists include pianist Elisabeth Brauss with Anna Clyne’s Atlas Piano Concerto (Oct 2025); Janice Carissa in the Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 (Oct 2025); and soprano Mei Gui Zhang performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s dramatic aria Ah! Perfido (Mar 2026).

Polish conductor Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, winner of the 2022 La Maestra competition, makes her Minnesota Orchestra debut leading works by Graźyna Bacewicz and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Mar 2026). Returning conductors include David Afkham (Oct 2025), Delyana Lazarova (Dec 2025), Fabien Gabel (Jan 2026), Juraj Valčuha (Feb 2026) and Eun Sun Kim leading performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony featuring the Minnesota Chorale and vocal soloists (Mar 2026), paired alongside Gabriela Lena Frank’s bold Pachamama Meets an Ode. Conductor Laureate Osmo Vänskä will lead a February program including Sinfonia (for Orbiting Spheres) by Missy Mazzoli (another Composer Institute alumnus), as well as Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 featuring Concertmaster Erin Keefe.

Orchestra Musicians, Musical Premieres 

In addition to Concertmaster Erin Keefe, many other Orchestra musicians will be spotlighted centerstage. A quartet of Orchestra players (violinist Yi Zhao, cellist Erik Wheeler, oboist Kate Wegener and bassoonist J. Christopher Marshall) will be featured in Joseph Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante (Dec 2025), and Principal Oboe Nathan Hughes will perform one of the last works of Richard Strauss, his Oboe Concerto (Apr 2026), inspired by American oboe player John de Lancie. Violinist Sarah Grimes and Associate Principal Cello Silver Ainomäe will join guest pianist Alessio Bax for Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (July 2026), in a program led by conductor Stephanie Childress.  

Three principal players will offer world, U.S. or Minnesota premieres of recent pieces commissioned or co-commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra. As part of September season opening concerts, Principal Cello Anthony Ross will offer the world premiere of a ten-minute work by St. Paul composer Steve Heitzeg, EcoSaga (Concerto in Three Landscapes). In January 2026, Principal Viola Rebecca Albers will perform the U.S. premiere of South Korean-born composer Donghoon Shin’s Viola Concerto, Threadsuns, which was inspired by the poetry of Paul Celan and premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic in January 2025. Conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, Principal Timpani Erich Rieppel will step forward in May 2026 to play New York-based composer Andy Akiho’s Timpani Concerto, a co-commission with the Houston Symphony scheduled for premiere by that ensemble just two months earlier. 

Chamber Music 

The talent of individual musicians will also shine in a series of four chamber music concerts programmed and performed by Orchestra musicians. Held in Orchestra Hall, the concerts will take place in January (featuring violinist James Ehnes alongside Minnesota Orchestra musicians), February (featuring the music of Beethoven and Schoenberg), March (spotlighting Pianist Inon Barnatan, Concertmaster Erin Keefe and a string quartet in Chausson’s Concerto in D major) and May (including music by Bolcom, Poulenc and Ravel). For complete programming details, please see the season calendar.

LIVE AT ORCHESTRA HALL

The Live at Orchestra Hall series presents performances and collaborations with popular artists of many genres, films presented live in concert and musical celebrations of a variety of holidays. The season is curated and primarily conducted by Sarah Hicks, the Orchestra’s principal conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall.

Musical Stars 

Singer-rapper-writer Dessa—who has previously commanded the Orchestra Hall stage to tell stories of love, loss and dental work—will return for her fifth set of mainstage performances with the Orchestra in two concerts led by Sarah Hicks on November 7-8. Conductor Brent Havens will lead Windborne’s The Music of Pink Floyd with vocalist Randy Jackson and the Orchestra in a February 2026 program that features the groundbreaking Dark Side of the Moon concept album. Later in the month, singer-songwriter Ben Rector joins the Orchestra for his “Songs for America,” tapping into his original catalogue of hits that combine elements of golden-era pop, Broadway tunes and modern hymns. 

U.S. Bank Movies & Music Series 

The Minnesota Orchestra’s movies and music programming presents live performances of film scores while the major motion pictures are screened in high definition above the stage. The series launches with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in four October performances, followed by the 1985 Richard Donner classic The Goonies, presented right before Halloween. Mark Knopfler’s music is a beloved part of The Princess Bride which the Orchestra will present in November. Offered in April 2026, Disney in Concert: The Sound of Magic is a film collage featuring favorite characters and songs from the Disney catalogue, including Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Moana and Frozen, among others. May brings Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™, and in June 2026, the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus (TCGMC) joins Hicks and the Orchestra for an original program, Disney Pride in Concert. Drawing inspiration from classic films and sharing video clips from the Disney vault, the concert features stories from the TCGMC and celebrates life, love, family and pride.

Holiday Concerts 

The Orchestra’s holiday offerings in December 2025 begin with a Cody Fry Christmas on December 10 that features the Nashville-based artist singing with the Orchestra in original and classic Christmas tunes. Kermit and Gonzo join the Orchestra Hall festivities for performances of Disney’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, on December 12-13, while Minnesota Orchestra trumpet player Charles Lazarus and friends mark the season with their annual big band, jazz- inspired Merry & Bright concert on December 14. Later that week, December 19-20, the acrobats of Troupe Vertigo join the Orchestra for the dazzling, family-friendly Cirque Nutcracker, and the season culminates in a New Year’s Celebration featuring conductor Teddy Abrams and pianist Aaron Diehl in music by American composers Timo Andres, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Michael Tilson Thomas. 

Holiday celebrations are interwoven through the spring season as well. The Orchestra will mark its fifth annual Lunar New Year concert on February 26, 2026, toasting the Year of the Horse in a concert led by Chia-Hsuan Lin and featuring Assistant Concertmaster Rui Du and suona virtuoso Yazhi Guo. Conductor Kedrick Armstrong will make his Minnesota Orchestra debut in the Orchestra’s fourth annual Juneteenth concert on June 18, 2026, spotlighting composer Brian Nabors in his own Concerto for Hammond Organ plus a set of classic R&B-flavored tunes from Broadway powerhouse Melody Betts.

EDUCATION AND FAMILY CONCERTS 

A tradition since 1911, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts are designed for students in grades 1-6. Scheduled during the school day, they provide educational field trips for student and home school students across Minnesota. Over the course of the 2025-26 season, the Orchestra will present three distinct programs encompassing 18 total performances. These concerts include:

• Magnificent Musical Creatures (Nov 2025)
• Peter and the Wolf (Feb 2026)
• Disney in Concert: Sounds of Magic (Apr 2026)

The 2025-26 season also features three Relaxed Family Concerts—one-hour full Orchestra programs designed for young audiences and individuals with autism or sensory sensitivities. Specific programs feature Magnificent Musical Creatures (Nov 2025) exploring connections between music and the animal kingdom, and Symphonic Storytelling (Mar 2026) delving into how composers use music to tell tales. Programming for the July 2026 program will be announced at a later date. 

The Orchestra will also offer three small ensemble Sensory Friendly Concerts in the intimate space of the Target Atrium, hosted by music therapist Lyndie Walker. Programs are scheduled for October, February and March.

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