Boston Symphony Orchestra's 144th Season Single Tickets On Sale Tomorrow

Single tickets go on sale Thursday, July 25 at 10 a.m. for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's 144th season (September 19, 2024, through May 3, 2025), Music Director Andris Nelsons' tenth anniversary season with the orchestra.

Fall 2024 Program Highlights

Opening weekend, September 19–21, showcases the breadth of the upcoming season, with performances by both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops. Opening Night Gala includes mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, husband-and-wife pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger, and the winner of the BSO's 2023 Concerto Competition, Keila Wakao. The program features the first commission (Festive Overture and Fanfare) of the BSO's new Composer Chair, Carlos Simon in celebration of Music Director Andris Nelsons' tenth anniversary and the first official Symphony Hall concert with newly appointed Concertmaster Nathan Cole (Sept. 19). The weekend continues as talented circus performers tumble to the music of the Pops led by Keith Lockhart in Cirque Goes to the Cinema (Sept. 20), and we once again welcome audiences across Greater Boston to Symphony Hall for a free Concert for the City (Sept. 21).  

The 2024–25 season builds upon the BSO's legacy of commissioning and championing new music, reflecting “the sense of innovation that is at the core of the BSO,” as CEO and President Chad Smith told the New York Times in recent interview.  Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León premieres BSO co-commission Time to Time for the season's second weekend (Sept. 26–28), and Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid and the BSO revisit Michael Gandolfi's Ascending Light (Oct. 10–12), first performed by the orchestra in 2015. Composer Chair Carlos Simon curates an all-American concert with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players on Sept. 29. 

In early October, Nelsons conducts Mahler's ambitious Eighth Symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” for eight soloists, large chorus, children's chorus, organ, and orchestra (Oct. 4–6). Other programmatic highlights this fall include Franz Liszt's dramatic Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Oct. 24–26), a tribute to the groundbreaking Duke Ellington (Nov. 7 & 9), and Kevin Puts' song cycle The Brightness of Light with soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry (November 21–23). 

Thematic concerts with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops punctuate this BSO season. Pre-season Pops activity celebrates the music of John Williams, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Concert* (Sept. 5–6) and A Grand Suite from Harry Potter (Sept. 7–8). For Halloween, organist Brett Miller provides live accompaniment to the 1922 silent horror classic Nosferatu (Oct. 30), and Lockhart and the Pops present Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert* (Oct. 31, Nov. 2). The Pops honor Mexican tradition with their first-ever Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) concert at Symphony Hall (Nov. 1). 

The BSO continues to offer free events throughout greater Boston and the Berkshires, building community through music. In addition to the free Concert for the City (Sept. 21), the BSO also will offer Community Chamber Concerts in venues throughout the state (dates to be announced), participate in the Fenway Alliance's Opening Our Doors Festival (Oct. 14), and offer free tickets to High School Open Rehearsals and Youth & Family concerts to students and teachers from Boston Public Schools. As Yo-Yo Ma said in a recent interview, "This belief — that music is service — is in the Boston Symphony Orchestra's founding DNA, and it's a purpose that I see guiding the BSO today.” 

Fall BSO Programs Under the Direction of Andris Nelsons

• September 26–28: BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons leads an all-American program including a world premiere of BSO co-commission Time to Time by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León and Wake Up: A Concerto for Orchestra by inaugural BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon. BSO Principal Clarinet William R. Hudgins is soloist in Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto, contrasting with Samuel Barber's soulful Adagio for Strings. 

• October 4–6: For his first time at Symphony Hall, Nelsons conducts Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand,” for eight soloists, large chorus, children's chorus, organ, and orchestra. Soloists Latonia Moore, Christine Goerke, Ying Fang, Mihoko Fujimura, Gerhild Romberger, Andreas Schager, Michael Nagy, and Ryan Speedo Green are joined by the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boys of the St. Paul's Choir School for this epic, oratorio-like work. 

• November 21–23: Opening with two Mozart works (Overture to The Abduction of Seraglio and Symphony No. 36, Linz), Nelsons conducts a program highlighted by star soprano Renée Fleming and talented baritone Rod Gilfry performing Kevin Puts' The Brightness of Light. A BSO commission composed for Fleming, the piece recounts the love story of painter Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband Alfred Stieglitz through music and projections by Wendall K. Harrington. 

• November 29–30: Nelsons and the two summer 2024 Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Fellows, Ross Jamie Collins and Na'Zir McFadden, jointly conduct this concert of Norwegian and Finnish works. Argentine pianist Sergio Tiempo is soloist in the Norwegian Edvard Grieg's fiery Piano Concerto, paired with the composer's Baroque-inspired Holberg Suite. Two works by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, the much-beloved Finlandia and late single-movement Seventh Symphony, complete the program. 

Fall BSO Programs with Guest Conductors

• October 10–12: BSO Assistant Conductor Samy Rachid makes his BSO subscription debut in a program that opens with Berlioz's romantic Waverly Overture and features the glorious Symphony Hall Aeolian-Skinner organ. Olivier Latry, organist at Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, performs in Michael Gandolfi's Ascending Light, a BSO-commission premiered in 2015 as tribute to Armenian culture on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. Latry is also featured in Saint-Saëns' majestic Symphony No. 3 (Organ). 

• October 17–19: Beginning with an Open Rehearsal on the 17th, Xian Zhang, Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony, makes her Symphony Hall debut leading Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese-born composer Chen Yi's Landscape Impression. American pianist Jonathan Biss is the soloist in Robert Schumann's lyrical Piano Concerto. The program concludes with Mozart's elegant Symphony No. 39, the first of his final trilogy of symphonies. 

• October 24–26: Italian-British conductor Sir Antonio Pappano conducts a powerful program opening with the American premiere of Hannah Kendall's O flower of fire, inspired by the work of Guyanese-British poet Martin Carter. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings dazzling elegance to Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2, which distills the turbulent essence of Romanticism. Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, with its immediately recognizable opening “sunrise,” is a musical response to Friedrich Nietzsche's eponymous metaphysical novel. 

• November 7 & 9: BSO Germeshausen Youth and Family Concerts Conductor Thomas Wilkins conducts the BSO in a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of Duke Ellington's death. The program features three of his symphonically ambitious “Tone Parallels”: Three Black Kings, New World A-Coming (with six-time Grammy-nominated pianist Gerald Clayton as soloist), and Night Creature, as well as selections from the composer's Sacred Concerts. 

• November 14–16: Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki is the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466. Swiss conductor Phillipe Jordan conducts the dramatic concerto, in addition to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's poignant Symphony No. 6, Pathétique, the final work the composer completed before his death. 

Fall Programs with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops

• September 5 & 6: Lockhart and the Pops present Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Concert*, accompanying the 2015 film with a live performance of John Williams' iconic score. 

• September 7 & 8: Actress Paula Plum narrates A Grand Suite from Harry Potter, which recounts the story of “the boy who lived” using music from throughout the magical series. 

• September 20: In Cirque Goes to the Cinema, the peerless artistry of the Boston Pops meets the athletic elegance of talented circus performers as they tumble and fly to a soundtrack featuring timeless tunes from the silver screen. 

• October 30: Organist Brett Miller provides live organ accompaniment to F.W. Murnau's 1922 genre-defining horror classic silent film Nosferatu (this program does not include orchestra). 

• October 31 & November 2: The Pops present Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert*, which follows the earnest-but-misguided adventures of Jack Skellington, Halloween Town's beloved Pumpkin King. 

• November 1: In Celebrating El Día de Muertos – The Day of the Dead, the Pops honor the Mexican tradition, which intertwines life and death in a beautiful tapestry of remembrance and reverence. 

Fall 2024 Boston Symphony Chamber Players

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 remainder of the BSCP's fall season 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. 

2025 Program Highlights

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. To complement 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.  

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. 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.   

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.  

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. As part of these season-end concerts, Nelsons is also pairing performances of Shostakovich's symphonies with a concerto performance by acclaimed soloists: cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1; pianist Mitsuko Uchida in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto; and violinist Baiba Skride in Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto.  

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.  

For complete descriptions of 2025 programs, please visit bso.org 

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 will go on sale Thursday, 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. 

Details for how to reserve free tickets for the Concert for the City (Sept. 21) will be announced closer to the dates of these performances. 

*Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Concert and Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert: Presentations licensed by Disney Concerts. (c) All rights reserved. 

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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