The New York Philharmonic has announced its 2026–27 season, marking the start of Gustavo Dudamel’s tenure as Music and Artistic Director, which officially begins in September 2026. The season combines major premieres, international touring, opera performances, and large-scale projects that signal a new artistic phase for the orchestra.
Dudamel, who was named the orchestra’s next music director in 2023, will launch his first season with a series of concerts across New York City before leading the Philharmonic on its first European tour in nearly a decade.
Opening events across New York
The season will begin on 10 September 2026 with a concert at Radio City Music Hall, rather than at the orchestra’s home venue, David Geffen Hall. The following day the Philharmonic will present a memorial concert at the Perelman Performing Arts Center, marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Dudamel’s first concerts at David Geffen Hall as music director will take place 16–19 September, featuring the world premiere of a new orchestral work by Zosha Di Castri, alongside John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls — the Pulitzer Prize-winning tribute to the victims of 9/11 commissioned and premiered by the Philharmonic in 2002 — and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5.
Later in the month, Dudamel will conduct another world premiere, Tania León’s Imágenes mestizas, paired with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. The opening weeks will also include appearances by Lang Lang, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 “Emperor,” and Yo-Yo Ma, performing Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul.
European tour
In October 2026, Dudamel will lead the orchestra on a two-week European tour, marking the Philharmonic’s first visit to Europe in almost ten years. The tour will include concerts in Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna.
The programs will feature Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls as well as the European premieres of the new works by Di Castri and León, alongside symphonies by Mahler and Prokofiev.
Opera at Carnegie Hall
The Philharmonic will also launch a five-year partnership with Carnegie Hall dedicated to opera performances in concert. The initiative will open in November 2026 with Puccini’s Tosca conducted by Dudamel.
The cast will include Marina Rebeka as Tosca, Jonas Kaufmann as Cavaradossi, and Ludovic Tézier as Scarpia, with the New York Philharmonic Chorus also taking part.
Artists-in-residence: Abramović and Santaolalla
In a departure from the orchestra’s usual practice of appointing a single instrumentalist as artist-in-residence, the Philharmonic will collaborate with two figures from outside the traditional orchestral world: performance artist Marina Abramović and Argentine composer and producer Gustavo Santaolalla.
Santaolalla will present the world premiere of El Payador perseguido, a multimedia work inspired by texts of Atahualpa Yupanqui, combining orchestral performance with video by filmmaker Alberto Arvelo.
Abramović will direct a staged production pairing Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale with Falla’s El Amor brujo, conducted by Dudamel.
Beethoven focus and Bernstein’s Mass
In spring 2027 the Philharmonic will present a three-week focus on Beethoven, marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death. The programs will include orchestral arrangements of Beethoven string quartets by former Philharmonic music directors Mahler, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein, as well as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Mitsuko Uchida.
The season will conclude in June 2027 with the Philharmonic’s first-ever performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass in its entirety, presented in a staged production.
Premieres and composer celebrations
Across the season, the Philharmonic will present twelve premieres, including seven world premieres, three U.S. premieres, and two New York premieres.
Among them are concertos by Unsuk Chin and Kevin Puts, a violin concerto by David Lang for Hilary Hahn, and a song cycle by Gonzalo Grau on texts by Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas.
The orchestra will also mark John Adams’s 80th birthday, with the composer conducting his own works including the New York premiere of his piano concerto After the Fall with Víkingur Ólafsson, and celebrate Steve Reich’s 90th birthday with a performance of Tehillim.
Conductors and soloists
Returning conductors during the season include Marin Alsop, Semyon Bychkov, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding, Jakub Hrůša, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Zubin Mehta, who will return to the Philharmonic for the first time since 2012.
Conductors making their Philharmonic debuts include Joana Mallwitz, Ryan Bancroft, Roberto González-Monjas, Holly Hyun Choe, and Eva Ollikainen.
Soloists appearing throughout the season include Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida, Beatrice Rana, and Víkingur Ólafsson, among others.
With Dudamel formally beginning his tenure in September 2026, the season represents the first full artistic statement of the orchestra under its new leader, combining traditional repertoire with new commissions, international touring, and interdisciplinary collaborations.
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