Boston Symphony Orchestra Announces 2022-2023 Season

The 2022-23 Boston Symphony Orchestra season, under the direction of Andris Nelsons, will present a spectrum of performers and musical styles, spotlighting some of classical music's most vibrant artists. Eighteen works by living composers-including seven world and American premieres-are included alongside a Nelsons-led concert performance of Act III of Wagner's Tannhäuser, the continuation of the Shostakovich cycle, and signature repertoire works by Bach, Beethoven, Bernstein, Brahms, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. The season introduces exciting new performers (among them, Nicola Benedetti, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Eric Lu, Awadagin Pratt, and Golda Schultz) and welcomes back guests who have deeply inspired audiences with their extraordinary musicianship time and time again at Symphony Hall. Details are available at bso.org.

The new season focuses on music's unique power to impart a deeper understanding of our common humanity. Voices of Loss, Reckoning, and Hope, a three-week festival, March 3-18, will explore stories of perseverance and justice in society with powerful works by American composers: Julia Wolfe's Her Story, which broadly speaks to the continuing struggle for women's rights; Anthony Davis' haunting clarinet concerto, You Have the Right to Remain Silent, with soloist Anthony McGill, about the emotional consequences of experiences with law enforcement; and Uri Caine's The Passion of Octavius Catto, which reflects on the life of the Philadelphia civil rights activist. The Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) will present programming featuring guest speakers, panel discussions, and chamber music concerts that encourage dialogue on social change by expanding on the subjects covered by the festival's featured works. Complete details to be announced at a later date.

A second theme throughout the season is musical perspectives on the tragedies of war and conflict, including Osvaldo Golijov's Falling Out of Time, Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, Ella Milch-Sheriff's The Eternal Stranger, and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar.

QUOTE FROM ANDRIS NELSONS, RAY AND MARIA STATA BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR

"I so look forward to next season's special focus on music's power to touch our hearts and reveal the many stories and emotions that bring us together as a human family. We welcome an extraordinary spectrum of composers and artists who will share their unique musical perspectives with the orchestra and our audiences. We invite everyone-longtime concertgoers and newcomers-to join us for a bright and compelling 2022-23 Boston Symphony Orchestra season!" - Andris Nelsons, Ray and Maria Stata BSO Music Director


"Next year in Symphony Hall we look forward to welcoming audiences to a season that reflects music's profound ability to bear witness to the social and cultural issues of our time. From works by composers new to the extraordinary Boston Symphony Orchestra and a wide range of artists in their BSO debuts, to enduring classics and performances by the orchestra's most cherished returning collaborators, we invite audiences across Boston, whether this will be their first time in Symphony Hall or their 101st, to join us." - Gail Samuel, Eunice and Julian Cohen President and Chief Executive Officer

BSO MUSIC DIRECTOR ANDRIS NELSONS LEADS 13 PROGRAMS

• The September 22 opening night program welcoming Awadagin Pratt in his BSO debut performing J.S. Bach's Piano Concerto in A and Jessie Montgomery's Rounds for piano and string orchestra; program opens with John Williams' A Toast! and closes with Holst's The Planets, featuring the Lorelei Ensemble

• World premieres by Iman Habibi, Steven Mackey, and Carlos Simon; American premieres by Thierry Escaich and Thomas Adès; and recent works by Elizabeth Ogonek and Caroline Shaw

• An all-Wagner program-Act III of Tannhäuser, opening with the opera's overture and Venusberg music; featured vocalists include Amber Wagner (Elisabeth), Klaus Florian Vogt (Tannhäuser), and Christian Gerhaher (Wolfram), as well as the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, under the direction of James Burton

• The continuation of the orchestra's Grammy Award-winning Shostakovich cycle with Symphony No. 3, The First of May, and Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar, with bass Ildar Abdrazakov and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, as well as Symphony No. 5

• Programs featuring three preeminent pianists of our time-Lang Lang (Saint-Saëns), Yuja Wang (Shostakovich), and Mitsuko Uchida (Beethoven); two rising stars of the classical music field-cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Bloch) and pianist Seong-Jin Cho (Ravel); and four widely acclaimed violinists-Augustin Hadelich (Britten), Janine Jansen (Bernstein), Anne-Sophie Mutter (Thomas Adès, American premiere), and Baiba Skride (Shostakovich)

• Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Brahms' Symphony No. 4, Mahler's Symphony No. 6, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, Strauss' An Alpine Symphony, and Stravinsky's Petrushka (1947 version, complete)

• A two-concert series at Carnegie Hall

Click here for a listing of BSO concerts with Andris Nelsons

THE BOSTON SYMPHONY CHAMBER PLAYERS, FREE COMMUNITY CHAMBER PROGRAMS, TANGLEWOOD LEARNING INSTITUTE, AND BSO NOW STREAMING PLATFORM

• The Boston Symphony Chamber Players' three-concert, Sunday afternoon series at Jordan Hall and free Community Chamber Programs in community centers throughout greater Boston

• Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI)-offering expansive, eclectic, and engaging performances and wide-ranging cultural experiences-to take place in the Berkshires and in conjunction with the 2022-23 BSO season at Symphony Hall

• BSO NOW, at www.bso.org/now, concert streaming details will be announced at a later date

• The BSO can be heard each Saturday, at 8 p.m., at WCRB 99.5 FM or classicalwcrb.org.

Further details about these programs will be announced at a later date.

BSO PRESENTS VOICES OF LOSS, RECKONING, AND HOPE-A THREE-WEEK FESTIVAL, MARCH 3-18, FEATURING WORKS BY AMERICAN COMPOSERS THAT INSPIRE DIALOGUE ON SOCIAL CHANGE

• Uri Caine's The Passion of Octavius Catto-a work that reflects on the life and tragic death of civil rights activist Octavius Catto-with conductor André Raphel in his subscription series debut, the BSO, Uri Caine Trio, Barbara Walker, and the Catto Chorus; the program will also include Coleridge-Taylor's Petite Suite de Concert and Still's Symphony No. 1, Afro-American

• Anthony Davis' You Have the Right to Remain Silent, featuring clarinetist Anthony McGill, on a program with a selection from Margaret Bonds' Montgomery Variations and William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony, under the direction of Thomas Wilkins

• Julia Wolfe's Her Story (BSO co-commission) invokes the words of historical figures and the spirit of pivotal moments to pay tribute to the centuries of ongoing struggle for equal rights for women in America; the performance will be conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero and feature the Lorelei Ensemble, Beth Willer, conductor

PROGRAMS THROUGHOUT THE SEASON THAT ADDRESS THE TRAGEDIES OF WAR AND CONFLICT

• Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar, under the direction of Andris Nelsons, based on poems by Yevgeny Yevteshenko, is a five-movement denunciation of Stalinism, the first of which condemns Soviet revisionist history and anti-Semitism surrounding a Nazi massacre of Ukrainian Jews

• The American premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's The Eternal Stranger, for narrator and orchestra, under the direction of Omer Meir Wellber; the work connects Beethoven's difficulty in society due to his deafness to the hostility and rejection experienced by refugees and other "strangers"

• Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, with soprano Aleksandra Kurzak, under the direction of Giancarlo Guerrero (on program with Julia Wolfe's Her Story), movingly contemplates the grief of a mother who lost her child to war ("Where has he gone, my dearest son? Perhaps during the uprising the cruel enemy killed him" is the opening text of the third song)

• Osvaldo Golijov's Falling Out of Time, A Tone Poem in Voices, composed for a multicultural, multistylistic instrumental ensemble, drawing powerfully upon popular and folk music styles, and inspired by the experimental novel by David Grossman-who characterizes the loss of his son to war as "a disaster that befell me," which "now permeates every minute of my life"; featured vocalists include Biella da Costa and Nora Fischer

BSO ARTISTS AND GUEST PERFORMERS AND COMPOSERS

BSO Assistant Conductors
• BSO Assistant Conductor Anna Rakitina opens her program with Elena Langer's Suite from Figaro Gets a Divorce, followed by Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with pianist Inon Barnatan, and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

• BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee leads Unsuk Chin's subito con forza, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, with soloist Eric Lu, and Schumann's Symphony No. 2

Guest Artists and Composers
• In their Symphony Hall debuts, Karina Canellakis (Dvorák's Wood Dove, Szymanowski's Violin Concerto No 2 with soloist Nicola Benedetti, and Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra) and Lahav Shani (Khachaturian Piano Concerto with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, Classical, and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances)

• In their BSO conducting debuts, Omer Meir Wellber (Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with soloist Midori, American premiere of Ella Milch-Sheriff's The Eternal Stranger, and the Funeral March from Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, and his Leonore Overture No. 3) and Andrés Orozco-Estrada (Mozart's Piano Concerto No 18 in B-flat with soloist Emanuel Ax, Bartók's Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, and music of Enescu and Tchaikovsky)

• Making a return to the BSO podium, Alan Gilbert (world premiere of Justin Dello Joio's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Oceans Apart, with soloist Garrick Ohlsson, on a program with music of Boulanger, Stenhammar, and Dvorák)

• Thomas Adès, former BSO Artistic Partner (2016-22), opens his program with Stravinsky's Perséphone; his own Suite from Inferno and Paradiso complete the program

HOW TO PURCHASE TICKETS AND DISCOUNTED PROGRAMS

2022-23 BSO Tickets
• Tickets to the 2022-23 BSO season-subscription renewals beginning on April 20 and public sale on August 8-may be purchased through bso.org, by calling 888-266-1200, or by visiting the Symphony Hall Box Office

New Thursday-evening start time, three-concert Sunday series and four-concert Casual Fridays series continue, and popular discounted programs return
• Thursday-evening BSO performances to begin at 7:30 p.m., in response to patron feedback
• BSO continues new three-concert Sunday-afternoon series, October 30, February 12, and March 5, with new start time of 2 p.m.
• For Casual Fridays, continuing for the eighth season, patrons are encouraged to wear casual attire and enjoy shorter programs, informal conversations with BSO members, and special Conductor-Cam seating
• BSO's highly successful $25 tickets for people under 40 returns in 2022-23
• $30 College Card available throughout the season
• $10 Rush Tickets program, offering significantly discounted tickets to concertgoers on the day of concert since the orchestra's inception, continues for select performances throughout the year

Click here for further details about ticketing and discount ticket programs

Health and Safety Protocols for the 2022-23 BSO Season at Symphony Hall

The BSO will announce details about health and safety measures closer to the start of the 2022-23 BSO season. The Boston Symphony Orchestra will continue to evaluate recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, and the BSO's own team of advisors and medical experts, including 9 Foundations, when determining its policies for Symphony Hall. The BSO will communicate directly with ticket buyers about changes to its protocols by email, with up-to-date information also available at bso.org/safety.

Brief Information About the BSO

Led by Music Director Andris Nelsons since 2014, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert in 1881 and opened Symphony Hall-widely acclaimed as one of the greatest concert halls in the world-in 1900. Today the BSO reaches millions of listeners through not only its concert performances in Boston and at Tanglewood-the orchestra's summer home in Lenox and Stockbridge, MA-but also via streaming on BSO NOW, educational and community programs, radio, television, recordings, and tours. Click here for further information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Hall. Click here for an Andris Nelsons bio.

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