The NSO will effectively become a “regional touring orchestra”, in the words of Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, as it takes its concerts across Washington, Maryland and Virginia while the Kennedy Center undergoes a planned two-year renovation.
The National Symphony Orchestra has unveiled an unusual 2026–27 season that will see the ensemble leave its traditional concert hall and perform across six venues in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia during the closure of the Kennedy Center.
The season was announced on 18 August, just five and a half weeks before its opening concert on 26 September, and considerably later than usual. The Kennedy Center is expected to close for two years for an extensive renovation project.
A season spread across the Washington region
The NSO has scheduled 64 classical concerts, with 56 taking place in the Washington area and another eight forming part of a U.S. tour from 20 to 30 April 2027.
The largest share of the local season will take place at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, which will host 24 concerts. The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland, will host 13, while nine will be presented at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center in Alexandria, Virginia.
A further eight concerts will take place at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts in Fairfax, with two each at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland in College Park and the Lincoln Theatre in Washington.
All six venues have smaller capacities than the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, which accommodated up to 2,465 audience members.
Noseda: a ‘regional touring orchestra’
For Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, the temporary displacement offers the orchestra an opportunity to develop a different relationship with audiences across the region.
“I’d like to think of this year of the National Symphony Orchestra as a regional touring orchestra,” Noseda told the Associated Press.
The conductor said the ensemble would bring music directly to different communities rather than asking audiences to travel to a single permanent venue.
The NSO will nevertheless retain an important connection with the Kennedy Center during the closure. It intends to continue rehearsing there and to keep its offices and music library in the building while reconstruction is under way.
Noseda begins his tenth season
The 2026–27 season marks Noseda’s tenth as Music Director of the NSO. His contract runs through the orchestra’s centenary season in 2030–31.
He will conduct 20 concerts across five of the six Washington-area venues during his ten weeks in the region, beginning with the season-opening gala at Strathmore on 26 September. He will also lead the orchestra’s April U.S. tour.
According to Noseda, only two of his originally planned programmes required changes because of the smaller stages available at some of the temporary venues.
The conductor acknowledged that the situation was not one he would have chosen, but stressed the need for the orchestra to adapt.
“I honestly would have preferred not to go through this,” he told AP, “but the situation is the way it is and we have to be proactive.”
Kennedy Center enters a two-year closure
The NSO’s temporary relocation follows the Kennedy Center board’s decision to close the performing arts complex for a two-year reconstruction project.
The decision comes amid continuing controversy surrounding the institution following the overhaul of its leadership in 2025 under President Donald Trump. A joint NSO and Kennedy Center statement announcing the orchestra’s plans referred to Trump’s “strategic direction” as chairman of the Center.
For the NSO, however, the coming season will be defined above all by mobility. The orchestra will maintain roughly the same number of classical performances as in 2025–26 while attempting to turn the loss of its permanent concert hall into an opportunity to reach audiences throughout the wider Washington region.
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