Boston Symphony Orchestra Unveils 2024–25 Season Featuring a World Premiere & More

In celebration of Andris Nelsons’ tenth anniversary as music director, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2024–25 season will delve deeper into the popular programmatic themes from Nelsons’ first decade with the orchestra and offers Symphony Hall audiences an exceptional variety of music in wide-ranging styles. Nelsons’ ongoing dedication to vocal, American, and contemporary music—and the BSO’s Grammy Award-winning Shostakovich cycle—are featured front and center, among other highlights. The 2024–25 season also marks the debut of Carlos Simon as its Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair, a three-season position in which the composer and educator will contribute several new works to the BSO’s repertoire, work together with Nelsons to curate concert programs, and lead educational and outreach initiatives. 

The three distinct concerts planned for Opening Weekend (Sept. 19–21) offer programs designed to engage and excite a broad range of audiences, from Thursday’s BSO Fundraising Gala featuring superstar soloists and premiering a new commission by Simon to Friday’s Boston Pops concert with Cirque de la Symphonie to Saturday’s free Concert for the City planned in collaboration with community partners.  

Throughout the season, the orchestra will draw connections across a broad range of disciplines as part of its commitment to the newly established Humanities Institute. With focuses on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and 20th-century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the Humanities Institute will serve to contextualize the BSO’s musical programming while building on the BSO’s history as an orchestra of ideas, augmenting the work of the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) through collaborations with other organizations to strengthen community connections and welcome new audiences.  

Partnering with the BSO for these concerts and initiatives will be some of the great solo performers of our time, including appearances by sopranos Renée Fleming and Christine Goerke; pianists Inon Barnatan, Jonathan Biss, Jan Lisiecki, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Sergio Tiempo, and Mitsuko Uchida; organist Olivier Latry; cellists Alban Gerhardt and Yo-Yo Ma; violinists Isabelle Faust, Baiba Skride, and Frank Peter Zimmermann, among many others. 

Quote from Chad Smith, Julian and Eunice Cohen BSO President and CEO:
"We have a lot to celebrate this season. The 2024–25 season is the eleventh with our Music Director Andris Nelsons—a tenure that we were thrilled to extend in January. It’s also our first season with our newly-appointed Composer Chair Carlos Simon, whose work has already been a wild success with our audiences in the U.S. and abroad. And it’s our first full season since we reaffirmed our commitment to the community in Boston and the Berkshires—and made a new pledge to avail ourselves of the unbelievable academic, artistic, cultural, and economic resources that surround both of our campuses—with our new Humanities Institute.

"All of these elements will be reflected in this season’s programming, beginning immediately with our Opening Weekend. From the Opening Fundraising Gala where Andris and the BSO will premiere the first composition of Carlos’ residency, alongside established and emerging guest stars; to the Cirque de la Symphonie concert, where Keith Lockhart will lead the Boston Pops in a program that will delight the young and young at heart; to the free Concert for the City, where Andris, Keith, and our Youth and Family Concerts Conductor Thomas Wilkins will perform a special program in collaboration with our partners throughout the community—there's truly going to be something for everyone."

Quote from Andris Nelsons, Ray and Maria Stata BSO Music Director and Head of Conducting at Tanglewood: 

“My first ten seasons as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra have been among the most joyous of my musical career, and I could not be happier about the connections that continue to evolve and deepen within the BSO and between our musicians and our devoted listeners. In this upcoming 2024–25 Season, we are excited to present and discover a range of new works alongside repertoire deeply beloved by the orchestra. The orchestra and I pledge our absolute commitment to sharing our love of music-making with our dear audiences. 

“This season brings so much to nourish our senses, spirits, souls, and hearts, including Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s extraordinarily beautiful opera Die tote Stadt and Gustav Mahler’s colossal Eighth Symphony. The Boston Symphony Orchestra last performed the Mahler at Symphony Hall 20 years ago, and it is thrilling to bring all these musical forces—orchestra, choruses, eight soloists, organ—together again. 

“We are also proud to honor the works of Ludwig van Beethoven through performances of the complete symphonies, presented chronologically in consecutive programs, as under BSO Music Director Serge Koussevitzky in March 1927. 

“Dmitri Shostakovich’s works reflect the deep complexities and abysses of human existence—from anguish and darkness to joy and hope—and his music resonates strongly with us and our times. After presenting the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk earlier this year, the BSO’s Shostakovich recording project—for which the brilliant musicians and recording team have won four Grammys—is nearing its completion. Nonetheless, the journey of discovery and rediscovery always continues, and I am looking forward to our Shostakovich programs at the end of the coming season, followed by a European tour and our participation in the wonderful and ambitious Shostakovich Festival in Leipzig together with the Gewandhausorchester in May 2025. 

“This season I am also happy to honor some of our most beloved relationships with return appearances by Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Yo-Yo Ma, Baiba Skride, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Mitsuko Uchida, and so many other wonderful artists. We are also excited to present several artist debuts and new works by gifted composers, such as Tania León, Aleksandra Vrebalov, and our new Composer Chair, Carlos Simon. We very much look forward to our continued collaborations with Carlos these next three seasons as we welcome him to the BSO family. This shared musical journey during this 2024–25 season is extremely meaningful to all of us, and so important for bringing our entire community together—our loyal subscribers, as well as many new concertgoers we are always sincerely joyful to welcome to Symphony Hall.” 

Quote from Carlos Simon, Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair:
"It's truly a privilege to begin the 2024–25 season as the BSO's inaugural Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair and become part of the Symphony's long history of music making. I am so looking forward to opening the season with a world premiere commission to celebrate Andris Nelsons' tenth year anniversary with the orchestra."

Vocal Blockbusters, World Premieres, Beethoven and Shostakovich Festivals: Highlights of the 2024–25 BSO Season Under the Direction of Andris Nelsons

The 2024–25 season, the BSO’s 144th, begins with an Opening Fundraising Gala on Sept. 19. The special black-tie event will showcase the first commission from new Composer Chair Carlos Simon—a work commemorating Nelsons’ decade of music-making with the BSO—with additional performances by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne), husband-and-wife pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger (Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals), and 2023 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition Winner Keila Wakao (Ravel’s Tzigane). Ravel’s dizzying La Valse completes the concert.  

Nelsons’ first subscription program on Sept. 26–28 is an all-American one: a highly anticipated new work and BSO co-commission by 2021 Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León with Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with BSO Principal Clarinet William R. Hudgins, and Carlos Simon’s 2023 work Wake Up: A Concerto for Orchestra. Also programmed to mark Nelsons’ tenth anniversary, Mahler’s lofty Eighth Symphony—the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand”—draws one of the largest ensembles in the repertoire: eight soloists, large chorus, children’s chorus, organ, and orchestra. Vocal soloists for these performances on Oct. 4–6 (the first performances of the Mahler 8 in Symphony Hall since 2004) are sopranos Latonia Moore, Christine Goerke, and Ying Fang; mezzo-sopranos Mihoko Fujimura and Gerhild Romberger; tenor Andreas Schager; baritone Michael Nagy, and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (James Burton, conductor) and the Boys of St. Paul’s Choir School.   

On Nov. 21–23, Nelsons welcomes back soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry for encore performances of a recent BSO co-commissioned work by American composer Kevin Puts that was premiered at Tanglewood in 2019. Inspired by letters between iconic American artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, the photographer and curator Alfred Stieglitz, the song cycle The Brightness of Light celebrates the creative legacy of O’Keeffe through music and projections designed by Wendall K. Harrington that incorporate images from O’Keeffe’s life and art. The head of projection design at Yale University, Harrington is a sought-after video artist for Broadway, rock concerts, opera, and ballet. The Brightness of Light will be paired with music by Mozart: his Symphony No. 36 (Linz) and the Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio. For the following week, on Nov. 29 and 30, Nelsons shares the podium with the 2024 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows, Ross Jamie Collins and Na’Zir McFadden, in a program of Norwegian and Finnish works. It will be the first time that recent TMC Fellows will share concerts with the BSO music director at Symphony Hall. Argentine pianist Sergio Tiempo is soloist in Grieg’s romantic Piano Concerto. 

In January, Nelsons returns for a complete cycle of the nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, performed in order on consecutive programs for the first time since BSO Music Director Serge Koussevitzky did so in March 1927. This special Beethoven symphony cycle will take place over a three-week period, beginning with Symphonies 1, 2, and 3 Jan. 9–11 and ending Jan. 23–25 with Symphonies nos. 8 and 9, the latter featuring an acclaimed roster of soloists—soprano Amanda Majeski, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford, tenor Pavel Černoch, and baritone Andrè Schuen—and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in the Ode to Joy finale. Beethoven holds a special place in the hearts of the BSO community, as his is the only composer’s name to be found in Symphony Hall, inscribed in the central position of the stage’s proscenium arch, symbolically overseeing all performances taking place on the Symphony Hall stage. To enhance the BSO’s musical programming, the newly established Humanities Institute will focus on the subject of Beethoven and Romanticism with specific surveys of the rise of heroic narratives, Beethoven's life and inspiration, and his redefining of the symphony for a new generation. Accompanying panel discussions and conversations will draw from the perspectives of preeminent thought leaders and Humanities Fellows across a wide range of disciplines. 

The Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 performances of Erich Korngold’s late Romantic masterpiece Die tote Stadt build on Nelsons and the BSO's recent history of stellar opera performances, including critically acclaimed concert versions of Strauss’ Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, and Elektra; complete acts of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Tannhäuser; Puccini’s Suor Angelica and La Bohème; Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte; Berg’s Wozzeck; and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Completed in 1920 when Korngold was just 23 years old, Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”) with its story of a lost loved one resonated with post-World War I audiences and became one of the biggest operatic successes of its time. In this collaboration with the Boston Lyric Opera, Die tote Stadt will feature an extensive all-star cast headed by soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Brandon Jovanovich, baritone Elliot Madore, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  

In April and May, Nelsons revisits music by Dmitri Shostakovich that has featured throughout his tenure at the BSO, earning three Grammy Awards and a mountain of rave reviews. On a program with Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony on April 26 and 27, Nelsons, the BSO, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus will premiere a new work for chorus and orchestra by Aleksandra Vrebalov using the same forces as Stravinsky’s choral masterpiece Symphony of Psalms. Originally from the former Yugoslavia and influenced in part by Orthodox chant, Vrebalov is an alumna of the Tanglewood Music Center and winner of the prestigious 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. 

As part of these season-end programs, Nelsons pairs performances of Shostakovich’s symphonies with a concerto performance by acclaimed soloists: cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 on April 11 with the Symphony No. 11 (The Year 1905); pianist Mitsuko Uchida in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto on April 17, 18, 19 with the Symphony No. 15; and violinist Baiba Skride in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto on May 2 and 3 with the Symphony No. 8. The Uchida and Ma programs travel to Carnegie Hall on April 23 and 24, 2025, respectively. Nelsons will conduct the BSO and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in Shostakovich’s complete 15 symphonies and six concertos in Leipzig, Germany, as part of a two-week festival marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. 

As with the Beethoven symphonies in January, the Humanities Institute will spotlight this monthlong exploration of Shostakovich’s music with “Decoding Shostakovich,” a series of curated events that will dive into the Soviet composer’s biography and examine and contextualize the subversive references employed in some of Shostakovich’s music. 

Opening Weekend at Symphony Hall, Sept. 19–21: Star-Studded Gala, Boston Pops and Cirque de la Symphonie, Concert for the City

Beyond the BSO’s Fundraising Gala with Andris Nelsons, Lang Lang, Gina Alice Redlinger, Susan Graham, and Keila Wakao on Sept. 19, opening weekend at Symphony Hall offers a family-friendly concert spectacle designed to wow and amaze, as well as a free concert for the Boston community. On Sept. 20, Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart leads the program Cirque de la Symphonie, which combines a soundtrack of film score favorites with talented circus performers tumbling and flying inside Symphony Hall. And in what has become a valued annual BSO tradition, the free Concert for the City returns on Sept. 21, with an open house and concert showcasing three maestros—Nelsons, Lockhart, and Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor Thomas Wilkins—alongside the BSO and Boston Pops’ arts and music education partners and programs from throughout Greater Boston.  

Jazz Tributes, American Premieres, and Exciting Artist Debuts: BSO Titled Conductor and Guest Conductor Highlights

In the 2024–25 season, the BSO continues its rich history of spotlighting jazz compositions and artists. Recent collaborations have included a tribute to composer Wayne Shorter (featuring bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding) and performances by Victor Wooten and the Aaron Diehl Trio. On November 7 and 9, the BSO and Thomas Wilkins will mark the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington’s death with several of the jazz great’s most ambitious works, with pianist Gerald Clayton as soloist in the optimistic New World A-Coming and vocalist Renese King and a select choir in excerpts from Ellington’s three Sacred Concerts. 

On March 21 and 22, Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair Carlos Simon curates “Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra,” a specially designed program reframing some of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s most influential works with new, lush orchestrations by Simon. In his BSO debut, Edwin Outwater will conduct this program, accompanied by exclusive and recently-exhibited personal photographs of Coltrane. 

On Oct. 10–12, French-born BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid partners with the preeminent Olivier Latry, titular organist at Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, in Saint-Saëns’ popular Organ Symphony and the organ concerto Ascending Light by Tanglewood Music Center composition chair Michael Gandolfi. Commissioned by the BSO and premiered in 2015, Gandolfi’s concerto was composed as a tribute to Armenian culture on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide  The following week, on Oct. 17–19, Xian Zhang makes her Symphony Hall debut conducting a work she premiered with the New Jersey Symphony in June 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese-born composer Chen Yi’s Landscape Impression, which will be programmed alongside Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Jonathan Biss and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39. On Oct. 24–26, Royal Opera House Music Director Antonio Pappano leads the U.S. premiere of Hannah Kendall’s O flower of fire, a work inspired by the work of Guyanese-British poet Martin Carter, with accompanying performances of Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring BSO favorite Jean-Yves Thibaudet.   

Other returning guest artists include Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan and Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 on Nov. 14–16; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique) completes the program. On Feb. 6–8, alongside Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann makes her BSO debut with German violinist Veronika Eberle in her Symphony Hall debut in Beethoven’s majestic Violin Concerto. That same month, celebrating a seven-decade conducting career, Herbert Blomstedt reprises performances of the Brahms’ First Symphony that he led at Symphony Hall to great acclaim in 2019. The concerts on Feb. 13–15 also feature Blomstedt conducting Schubert’s youthful Sixth Symphony.  

On Feb. 20–22, German violinist Isabelle Faust and former New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert return for Stravinsky’s witty, neoclassical Violin Concerto, to be complemented by lesser-known symphonies by Haydn (nos. 48 and 99). Acclaimed Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, known for her vibrant instrumental colors and skill with dramatic narrative, wrote her ballet score Revolución diamantina with Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. The piece explores the powerful Mexican feminist “Glitter Revolution” campaign to highlight an epidemic of violence against women. On Feb. 27–March 1, Costa Rican conductor Giancarlo Guerrero leads Ortiz’s score along with a pair of pieces by Tchaikovsky—the passionate tone poem Francesca da Rimini and Variations on a Rococo Theme with German cellist Alban Gerhardt. 

On March 6–8, San Francisco Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim makes her BSO debut. Star pianist Inon Barnatan returns to Symphony Hall to take on one of Bartók’s final compositions, the Third Piano Concerto, while Kim will also lead the BSO in Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake and Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony. More BSO debuts await the following week, on March 13–16, from Louisville Symphony Music Director Teddy Abrams and violinist Ray Chen. Chen plays Tchaikovsky’s much adored Violin Concerto, the first work the Russian composer completed after his separation from his disastrous marriage and a piece he almost dedicated to his student—and likely lover and inspiration—Iosif Kotek. The concerto is programmed with Michael Tilson Thomas’ Whitman Songs, to be sung by three-time Grammy winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton, and Bernstein’s iconic Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. 

The Tanglewood Festival Chorus is front and center for performances on March 27–29 of Mozart’s Requiem. Joining them, conductor Dima Slobodeniouk, and the BSO are soprano Erin Morley, mezzo-soprano Avery Amereau, tenor Anthony Gregory, and bass Morris Robinson. Arvo Pärt's meditative Tabula Rasa starts the program. A favorite with audiences and musicians, Slobodeniouk returns the following week, on April 3–5, for Elgar’s Violin Concerto with German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and Lachrymosa: 1919 by contemporary American composer Adolphus Hailstork. Lachrymosa evokes the tragedy of the Red Summer of 1919, a deadly backlash against Black American prosperity in the wake of World War I when at least 77 Black Americans were lynched. 

Boston Pops and Keith Lockhart Present John Williams Film Programs and Special Concerts for Halloween and 
El Día de Muertos

In September, pre-BSO season Symphony Hall activity robustly spotlights the Boston Pops, under the direction of Keith Lockhart, which will present two special programs celebrating the Pops’ esteemed Conductor Laureate John Williams: Star Wars: The Force Awakensin Concert,  the Oscar-nominated 2015 film with Williams’ Grammy-winning soundtrack performed live by the Pops (Sept. 5 and 6), and A Grand Suite from Harry Potter, featuring Williams’ music for the popular film saga connected with vivid narration (Sept. 7 and 8) along with other film music by Williams.  

Later this fall, in time for Halloween, Lockhart and the Pops will perform more of cinema’s great music. On Oct. 31 and Nov. 2, Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert presents Danny Elfman's Grammy-winning musical score live while the 1993 film (and cult classic) is shown on the big screen. It is preceded on Oct. 30 by a screening of F.R. Murnau’s 1922 genre-defining horror classic Nosferatu, experienced just as silent-film audiences of the time did, with live organ accompaniment creating a chilling atmosphere, played here by Brett Miller improvising on Symphony Hall’s prized Aeolian-Skinner organ. 

Finally, Lockhart and the Pops return on Nov. 1 for Celebrating El Día de Muertos – The Day of the Dead, a program exploring the Mexican holiday tradition through music that honors this rich cultural heritage where life and death intertwine in a beautiful tapestry of remembrance and reverence.  

Boston Symphony Chamber Players 2024–25 Season

The Boston Symphony Chamber Players open their 2024–25 season on Sunday, Sept. 29 with a special, non-subscription program curated by Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair Carlos Simon. Drawing from the American canon, the BSCP program is the second to be designed by Simon this season, in addition to the BSO’s concerts at Symphony Hall on March 21 and 22 dedicated to jazz saxophone great John Coltrane. More programming details for this season-opener—including location—will be announced at a later date. 

The remainder of the BSCP’s season, brimming with star soloists and premieres, will be performed at New England Conservatory of Music’s Jordan Hall. On Oct. 27, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet headlines a French program of Poulenc (the sonatas for flute, oboe, clarinet, with piano), Betsy Jolas (Music for here, for bassoon, viola, and cello), and Françaix (the Dixtour for winds and strings). New works by American composers Kevin Puts and Adam Schoenberg are planned for the concert on Nov. 17 that also features Britten’s Temporal Variations for oboe and piano and Copland’s perennially popular Appalachian Spring. 

On Feb. 16, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges helps present a new work by longtime BSO collaborator and Newton resident Osvaldo Golijov. Titled Laika, the piece is inspired by the story of the Soviet space dog who flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft in 1957, becoming the first animal to orbit the Earth, before perishing on the craft’s fourth orbit. Works by Schubert, Ravel, and Brahms complete the program. 

On April 6—and timed for the BSO’s monthlong exploration of Shostakovich’s music—is Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57 (pianist T.B.A.) with contemporary works by Elena Langer (Five Reflections on Water) and Sofia Gubaidulina (the Sonata for bass and piano) offering fresh perspective. 

Founded in 1964, the BSCP combines the talents of BSO principal players and renowned guest artists to explore the full spectrum of chamber music repertoire. 

BSO Community Chamber Concerts and Youth & Family Concerts

The BSO is pleased to present another season of Community Chamber Concerts featuring members of the BSO performing in various community venues throughout Greater Boston and beyond; times and locations will be announced at a later date.  

The BSO will also present its annual Youth and Family Concert Series, featuring three programs throughout the 2024–25 BSO season, including March 22 concerts led by BSO Artistic Advisor for Education and Community Engagement Thomas Wilkins. The concert’s theme will be announced at a later date. This series will also include two programs with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (BYSO): Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on Nov. 9 at noon and a program on April 5 at noon featuring magician Matt Roberts, led by conductor Marta Żurad. 
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How to Purchase Tickets

Subscriptions to the 2024–25 BSO season are now available to purchase by calling 888- 266-1200 or visiting bso.org; single tickets go on sale July 25 at 10 a.m. 

The Sept. 19 Opening Gala is a special fundraising event to benefit the BSO. For more information about attending this black-tie dinner and concert program, please contact our Development Events Office at bsorsvp@bso.org.

Discounts and Special Ticket Opportunities

BSO’s highly successful $25 tickets for people under 40 returns in 2024–25  
College Card and High School Card available throughout the season $10 Rush Tickets program, offering significantly discounted tickets to concertgoers on the day of concert, continues for select performances throughout the year.

Discounts for health care professionals, members of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, military personnel and veterans, and EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare Card holders 

Open rehearsals, for both the public and high school students, continue through the 2024–25 season. The dates for the High School Open Rehearsals are Nov. 27, Feb. 27, and Apr. 10. Open Rehearsals for the public are Oct. 17, Nov. 14, Jan. 16, and Apr. 3. All Open Rehearsals take place on Thursdays at 10:30 a.m. 
A free Concert for the City performance on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 2 p.m. 
 

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