Sokhiev’s first Vienna New Year’s Concert to feature Chaminade and honor Josef Strauss

The program for Tugan Sokhiev’s first appearance at the annual concert includes a work by Cécile Chaminade for the first time, alongside a tribute to Josef Strauss’s bicentenary and the return of the Vienna Girls Choir.

The Vienna Philharmonic has announced the program for its 2027 New Year’s Concert, with music by Cécile Chaminade appearing for the first time in the event’s history. Tugan Sokhiev will conduct the concert on January 1 in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein.

The program will also mark the 200th anniversary of Josef Strauss’s birth and feature the Vienna Girls Choir in two pieces.

Chaminade joins the repertoire

The French composer will be represented by the fourth movement of her orchestral suite Callirhoë, Op. 37. It is one of four works receiving their first New Year’s Concert performances, alongside Eduard Strauss’s Saat und Ernte, Johann Strauss II’s Sophien-Quadrille and Philipp Fahrbach II’s Storchschnäbel-Galopp.

Chaminade’s inclusion follows the concert’s first performance of music by a woman in 2025, when Riccardo Muti conducted Constanze Geiger’s Ferdinandus-Walzer. The 2026 program, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, subsequently included works by Josephine Weinlich and Florence Price.

A tribute to Josef Strauss

Born in 1827, Josef Strauss will be celebrated through the waltzes Delirien and Mein Lebenslauf ist Lieb und Lust, as well as the fast polkas Auf Ferienreisen! and Jocus-Polka. Two works composed jointly with his brother Johann Strauss II—the opening Vaterländischer Marsch and the Pizzicato Polka—also feature.

Johann Strauss II’s contributions include Künstlerleben, Schatz-Walzer, Perpetuum mobile and Éljen a Magyar!, which closes the announced program. Music beyond the Strauss family includes Joseph Hellmesberger II’s Danse diabolique and the waltz from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty.

The Vienna Girls Choir will join the orchestra for Johann Strauss II’s Bitte schön! and Leichtes Blut, both in arrangements by Wolfgang Dörner. The appearance marks the ensemble’s return to the event after participating alongside the Vienna Boys Choir in 2023.

Sokhiev’s New Year’s Concert debut

Sokhiev’s relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic began during an Asian tour in 2009. Since then, he has conducted the orchestra in Vienna, Salzburg and on international tours. In 2025, he led its Summer Night Concert for the first time and conducted a gala marking Johann Strauss II’s bicentenary.

Announcing the program, orchestra chairman Daniel Froschauer recalled the “strong sense of mutual musical trust and understanding” established at their earliest performances together, saying that the partnership had continued to deepen.

The New Year’s Concert begins at 11:15 a.m. Vienna time (10:15 GMT) on January 1, 2027. According to the orchestra, its television and streaming broadcasts reach around 50 million viewers in more than 150 countries.