Calgary Philharmonic 2024/2025 Season Kicks Off This Weekend

The Calgary Philharmonic will swing into the 2024/2025 Season with a September launch featuring an array of concerts for every taste and age!

Get the party started this weekend with the return of multi-hyphenate musical powerhouse (composer, conductor, producer, songwriter, etc.) Steve Hackman, who leads the Calgary Phil and guests for the Canadian premiere of Tchaikovsky X Drake on September 7. Hackman, whose Brahms X Radiohead and Beethoven X Coldplay concerts played to sold out shows in previous seasons, fuses 22 of Drake’s hits with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, synthesizing the sound and aesthetics of two romantic expressionists separated by a century.

The following day, September 8 at 2PM, all Calgarians are invited to Prince’s Island Park for Phil in the Park + Beat Beethoven, the seventh annual collaboration with Run Calgary – expanded this year to feature a FREE concert with the full Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in the heart of the city. While Beat Beethoven race participants complete their course – and raise money for Calgary Phil’s after school program, PhilKids, in the process – concertgoers will hear 50 minutes of Beethoven’s best music. Following the race and after a brief intermission, the show continues with movie music, Broadway showtunes, and classical favourites.

While Calgary Phil Music Director Rune Bergmann shares the podium with Resident Conductor Juliane Gallant for Phil in the Park, he makes his official season debut the following weekend with Carmina Burana on September 14. This performance of Carl Orff’s choral spectacular sees the Orchestra joined by the Calgary Boys’ Choir, the Calgary Children’s Choir, and the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus in an epic start to Rune’s final season as Music Director with the Calgary Phil.

Classic rock fans rejoice! On September 21 + 22 the Orchestra, along with the Jeans ‘n Classics Band, take on two of the most beloved prog masterpieces of all time – The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall – in The Music of Pink Floyd. From Comfortably Numb to the Great Gig in the Sky, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 to Money, hear all of your favourites in suitably epic symphonic grandeur.

Symphony Sundays for Kids returns on September 22 at 3PM with Barbar the Elephant. The timeless tale of the King of the Elephants is set to Francis Poulenc’s charming score, complemented with Maxime Goulet’s energetic Danse aérobique symphonique and Igor Stravinsky’s witty Circus Polka, and featuring bilingual narration by Geneviève Paré. Arrive early and check out the Instrument Discovery Zoo in the lobby of the Jack Singer Concert Hall at 2PM.

Finally, on September 27 + 28, internationally renowned pianist Jonathan Biss joins the Orchestra for Beethoven’s Emperor. Biss, also an accomplished author whose Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven was a Top 10 Audible ebook, brings out all the brilliance and splendor of Ludwig van Beethoven’s grand Emperor concerto with his renowned finesse and sensitivity. The evening’s program also includes Canadian composer Kati Agoc’s ’ dignified A Hero’s Welcome and guest conductor Ramón Tebar leading the Orchestra for Johannes Brahms’s powerful Fourth Symphony.

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