Joyce DiDonato (Photo: Sergi Jasanada)
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2025-2026 season. One of the world’s leading orchestras, the decorated ensemble’s season runs from September 18, 2025 to June 21, 2026 and welcomes a characteristically star-studded lineup of conductors and soloists.
Headlining the announcement is the appointment of a new artist-in-residence: reigning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. The innovative and versatile vocalist will make three Chicago appearances over the course of the season in a dynamic range of works — featuring two subscription series appearances and a performance with Time For Three under the banner of the Chamber Music series.
Music Directors Past and Future
The orchestra continues preparations for Klaus Mäkelä’s arrival as its full-time music director in the ’27-28 season. Currently the music director designate, the 29-year-old Finnish conductor will join the orchestra for four Chicago programs over the course of the year.
In October, he presides over an all-Berlioz program; in December, he welcomes pianist Yunchan Lim for music of Unsuk Chin and Jörg Widmann plus works by Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven. Then, in February, Mäkelä leads works by Sibelius and Strauss before concluding his season appearances with an evening anchored by Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
Klaus Mäkelä (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)
Mäkelä will also lead the orchestra on a US tour, a cornerstone of which will be the conductor’s first CSO Carnegie Hall appearance; he’ll also make his Ravinia debut leading the orchestra in Summer 2026.
Music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti also plays a major role in the season. The 83-year-old Italian maestro will lead four programs across two residencies. In his first stint of the season, Muti will lead Dvorak’s New World Symphony; the next week, he’ll welcome Pablo Sáinz-Villegas for Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, plus works by Stravinsky and Brahms. In March, he’ll lead works by Verdi in his third program, and then he’ll close out his season commitment with Tchaikovsky and his one-time mentor Nino Rota.
Guest Artists and Conductors
The season opens with two programs led by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, featuring works by Mozart, Elgar, Strauss, and Wagner, setting the tone for a year rich with guest conductors and soloists.
Mikko Franck and Daniela Candillari (making her CSO debut) follow, along with an all-Stravinsky program conducted by Stefan Asbury in collaboration with the Goodman Theatre. Guest soloists during this stretch include pianist Alice Sara Ott, violinist Augustin Hadelich, and mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano.
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider (Photo: Lars Gundersen)
Concertmaster Robert Chen leads and solos in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in November, while Manfred Honeck returns for Mozart’s Requiem, featuring soprano Erin Morley. Later in the season, violinist James Ehnes performs Britten’s Violin Concerto with conductor Gianandrea Noseda.
In the New Year, the Orchestra hosts respected conductors Jaap van Zweden and Esa-Pekka Salonen (who leads the orchestra and ’24-25 artist-in-residence Daniil Trifonov in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2). And pianist Leif Ove Andsnes makes a return trip to Chicago for Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with conductor Jakub Hrůša.
Spring highlights include a performance by pianist Evgeny Kissin, who tackles a trio of Russian concertos by Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev.
Film composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi makes a special appearance in April, bringing his beloved cinematic music to the stage.
June boasts appearances by Marin Alsop and James Gaffigan, who leads Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety featuring pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Joshua Weilerstein closes out the season with music of Jessie Montgomery, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Duke Ellington.
Classic and New Repertoire
The season abounds with beloved concert hall repertoire, including Berlioz Symphonie fantastique, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, Debussy’s La mer, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Copland’s Suite from Appalachian Spring, and more.
The lineup features one world premiere: Song of the Reappeared by Matthew Aucoin. Featuring Grammy-winning soprano Julia Bullock (in her orchestra subscription series debut), the CSO-commissioned work is inspired by poetry of Raúl Zurita and premieres in December.
The orchestra also shares the Midwest premiere of Marsalis’s fifth symphony: Liberty with conductor Marin Alsop welcoming the composer and his ensemble, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, to take part in the performance. The work is co-commissioned with NSO, Cincinnati, SLSO, and Philadelphia in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.
Unsuk Chin (Photo: Priska Ketterer)
The season features other new works; John Adams, Anna Clyne, Unsuk Chin, Jessie Montgomery, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson are among the contemporary composers whose music will be featured.
The Chicago Symphony Chorus features in performances throughout the season, including November’s Mozart Requiem, March’s Muti-led celebration of Italian opera, and May’s Poulenc Gloria.
Symphony Center Series
Also announced is programming in the piano and chamber music series.
The Symphony Center Presents Piano series welcomes artists Yuncham Lim, Beatrice Rana, Hayato Sumino, Kirill Gerstein, Marc-André Hamelin, Benjamin Grosvenor, Evgeny Kissin, and Conrad Tao.
The Symphony Center Presents Chamber Music series features a solo appearance by Christian Tetzlaff, a joint appearance by Joyce DiDonato and the innovative Time For Three, a mixed-rep program from the Zukerman Trio, and a performance of Chopin and Prokofiev by Yuja Wang and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Evgeny Kissin (Photo: Johann Sebastian Haenel for Deutsche Grammophon)
In December, the CSO’s legendary Brass Section takes center stage with conductor Michael Mulcahy.
In January, the Sinfónica de Minería makes its first Symphony Center performance; the Mexican orchestra will be led by Carlos Miguel Prieto and feature charismatic, genre-melding trumpeter Pacho Flores.
In May, renowned violinist Hilary Hahn returns to Symphony Center for a solo concert.
Symphony Center also welcomes Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a June 2 performance ahead of their appearances with the CSO and Marin Alsop later that week.
Also visiting Symphony Center over the course of the season are social media sensations TwoSet Violin, mandolinist Chris Thile, and Tango After Dark.
Additional Programming: Movies, Holidays, Kids, and more
In December, the beloved Merry, Merry Chicago! program returns. And winter season mainstays Chanticleer and the Vienna Boys Choir will make their annual appearances at Symphony Center. Also featured is a presentation of Home Alone, with the John Williams-penned score performed live.
Other programs under the CSO at the Movies banner are How to Train Your Dragon (November), 2001: A Space Odyssey (January 2026), and 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope (June 2026).
The season’s kid-friendly highlights include an orchestral setting of The Ugly Duckling; a guided survey of the orchestra called Which Instrument Should I Play?; a musical exploration of the air, fire, and water led by Mei-Ann Chen; and a sing-along performance of Mother Goose in collaboration with the Chicago Children’s Theatre.
Other News
In a separate announcement in late February, the CSO shared that principal trumpet Esteban Batallán will return to the orchestra for the 25-26 season following a one-year leave. Batallán spent the 2024-25 season with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He will be performing with the orchestra in April 2025 and make his CSO solo debut in June 2025 with Riccardo Muti.
For more information, visit cso.org.
