Concerts

Here’s Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2024-25 season lineup

Enjoy nods to jazz, cinema, and more during BSO's 2024-25 season.

10.5.23 - The BSO opens their 2023-24 season at Symphony Hall. Photo by Robert Torres/Courtesy of BSO

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As the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) goes into its 144th season, this year’s program is full of milestones.

Commemorating the 10th anniversary season of music director Andris Nelsons, new composer chair Carlos Simon will debut his first commission with BSO on opening night, Sept. 19. The concert will also include performances by mezzo-soprano singer Susan Graham, pianists Lang Lang and Gina Alice Redlinger, and violinist Keila Wakao.

On Friday, Sept. 20, Boston Pops Orchestra and Cirque de la Symphonie will take the stage to perform Cirque Goes to the Cinema, a nod to the silver screen age with iconic arrangements from the era.

The final night of Opening Weekend will conclude with performances by BSO, Boston Pops, and their arts and music education partners and programs throughout Greater Boston for the free Concert for the City. The concert will include vocal performances by Renese King, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and a special guest performance by Mayor Michelle Wu.

Mayor Wu will join Boston Pops to perform George Gershwin’s 1924 masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, led by conductor Keith Lockhart. Other guest artists joining the BSO include Boston Children’s Chorus and Veronica Robles and her Mariachi Ensemble. The main stage concert will begin at 3 p.m. Tickets will be available starting Sept. 12 at 10 a.m.

In January, the BSO will feature its first complete Beethoven symphony cycle since March 1927. This cycle will focus on themes of Beethoven’s life and inspirations, heroic narratives, and his impact on the symphony.

On March 21 and 22, John Coltrane’s most influential pieces will come to the BSO stage in COLTRANE Legacy for Orchestra, conducted by Edwin Outwater and Carlos Simon. The program is “reframing some of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s most influential works with new, lush orchestrations,” according to the BSO’s press release.

Toward the latter part of the season, Nelsons will revisit his three-time Grammy Award winning performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony in April and May, pairing Shostakovich’s symphonies with a concerto performance featuring soloists Yo-Yo Ma in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, Mitsuko Uchida in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto, and violinist Baiba Skride in Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto.

Here is the full Boston Symphony Orchestra schedule for the 2024-2025 season.

BSO 2024-25 season full schedule

Sept. 19-21: Opening weekend (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Sept. 21: Concert for the City (3 p.m., Symphony Hall)

Sept. 26-28: Andris Nelsons conducts Snider, Copland, Barber, and Simon with William R. Hudgins, clarinet (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Sept. 29: Boston Symphony Chamber Players (3 p.m., Jordan Hall)

Oct. 4-6: Mahler Symphony No. 8 | Symphony of a Thousand (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Oct. 10-12: Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with Olivier Latry (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Oct. 17-19: Mozart Symphony No. 39 with Xian Zhang & Jonathan Biss (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Oct. 24-26: Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra & Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 with Sir Antonio Pappano & Jean-Yves Thibaudet (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Oct. 27: Boston Symphony Chamber Players (3 p.m., Jordan Hall)

Oct. 30: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (7:30 p.m., Symphony Hall)

Nov. 7, Nov. 9: A Tribute to Duke Ellington with Thomas Wilkins and Renese King (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Nov. 14-16: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, Pathétique (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Nov. 21-23: The Brightness of Light with Andris Nelsons & Renée Fleming (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Nov. 29-30: Sibelius Finlandia with Andris Nelsons, Ross Jamie Collins, & Na’Zir McFadden (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Jan. 9-11: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, & 3 Eroica | Beethoven & Romanticism (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Jan. 16-17: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, & 3 Eroica | Beethoven & Romanticism (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Jan. 18, 21, 23-25: Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, & 3 Eroica | Beethoven & Romanticism (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Jan. 30, Feb. 1: Korngold Die tote Stadt with Andris Nelsons & Christine Goerke (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Feb. 6-8: Stravinsky The Firebird (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Feb. 13-15: Schubert Symphony No. 6 & Brahms Symphony No. 1 with Herbert Blomstedt (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Feb. 20- 22: Haydn Symphonies No. 48 & 99 & Stravinsky Violin Concerto with Isabelle Faust (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Feb. 27-March 1: Revolución diamantina with The Crossing, Giancarlo Guerrero, & Alban Gerhardt (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

March 6-8: Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 with Eun Sun Kim (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

March 13-16: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto & Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

March 19-March 21: BSO Youth Concerts (11 a.m., Symphony Hall)

March 21-22: Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

March 22: BSO Family Concert (12 p.m., Symphony Hall)

March 27-29: Mozart Requiem (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

April 3-5: Elgar Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

April 6: Boston Symphony Chambers Players (3 p.m., Jordan Hall)

April 10: Symphonies Nos. 6 & 11, The Year 1905 | Decoding Shostakovich (7:30 p.m., Symphony Hall)

April 11: Cello Concerto No. 1 with Yo-Yo Ma | Decoding Shostakovich (8 p.m., Symphony Hall)

April 17-19: Symphony No. 15 & Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with Mitsuko Uchida | Decoding Shostakovich (Times vary, Symphony Hall])

April 26-27: Symphony No. 6 & Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms | Decoding Shostakovich (Times vary, Symphony Hall])

May 2-May 3: Symphony No. 8 & Violin Concerto No. 1 with Baiba Skride | Decoding Shostakovich (Times vary, Symphony Hall)

Nia Harmon

Community Co-op

Nia Harmon is a community co-op for Boston.com and a journalism student at Emerson College. She is a journalism major with a minor in media studies at Emerson College. She is a native of Dallas, Texas.