2024/25 Season Highlights in North America
Read our season preview of premieres, new productions, and other performance highlights in North America.
The 2024-2025 season includes many highly anticipated premieres, new productions, and exciting projects from Boosey & Hawkes composers.
On the opera stage, the Metropolitan Opera presents Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar and John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra (conducted by Adams himself), and David T. Little’s searing new opera What Belongs to You (based on Garth Greenwell’s novel) premieres in Richmond, Virginia.
Gabriela Ortiz introduces four new works while in residence at Carnegie Hall, Anna Clyne’s ambitious experimentation with orchestral live processing culminates with the world premiere of PALETTE in St. Louis, and Unsuk Chin curates the Seoul Festival for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including performances of Gougalon and her Clarinet Concerto.
View our 2024-2025 season highlights listed by date here:
> Highlights by Date (PDF)
JOHN ADAMS
Adams takes to the podium this season to conduct his new symphonic poem Frenzy (Nov 6-9, North American premiere) with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which critics called “seething” (The Independent) and “packed with tension” (Financial Times); as well as performances of City Noir (Nov 14-16) at the New York Philharmonic, alongside Copland’s Quiet City.
He unveils After the Fall (Jan 16-19, world premiere), a concerto for celebrated Icelandic pianist Vikingur Ólafsson, which premieres with the San Francisco Symphony led by David Robertson and tours to multiple European orchestras in the spring. The new score alludes to the contrapuntal music of Bach, a nod to Ólafsson’s affinity for the Baroque master’s work.
In the spring, Adams returns to New York to conduct his 2022 Shakespearean opera Antony and Cleopatra (May 12-Jun 7, New York premiere) at the Metropolitan Opera, following presentations in San Francisco and Barcelona. The production, directed by Elkanah Pulitzer, features Adams experts Julia Bullock and Gerald Finley in the title roles.
LERA AUERBACH
Houston Ballet opens its season with the company premiere of composer Lera Auerbach’s The Little Mermaid (Sep 6-15), choreographed by John Neumeier. Auerbach uses a theremin to convey the otherworldly voice of the mermaid in this haunting score that traverses the worlds of land and sea.
Manfred Honeck, a close collaborator of Auerbach, conducts the world premiere of her new orchestral work (Jun 13-15, world premiere) with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, followed by the European premiere of the piece with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Musikverein (co-commissioners).
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Carnegie Hall presents starry performances of Bernstein’s music in the spring: Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’) (Mar 5) performed by violinist Janine Jansen and the London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano; and Symphony No. 1: “Jeremiah” (Jun 18), performed by soprano Angel Blue with The Met Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In April, Curtis Institute salutes Bernstein (a Curtis alum) with performances of his comic operetta Candide (Apr 11-13), directed by Emma Griffin. Another famed Curtis alumna, pianist Yuja Wang is featured soloist in Symphony No. 2: “The Age of Anxiety” (Apr 26), performed with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Nézet-Séguin.
COURTNEY BRYAN
Composer-pianist Courtney Bryan is featured on Miller Theatre’s renowned Composer Portraits series (Sep 12) at Columbia University. Bryan is joined onstage by the International Contemporary Ensemble and Quince Ensemble to perform recent chamber works, including Requiem, inspired by death rituals of various cultures, including the Tibetan Book of the Dead and New Orleans jazz funeral celebrations; and DREAMING (Freedom Sounds), a powerful call for liberation citing texts by Frederick Douglass and WEB DuBois, as well as Supreme Court letters of dissent.
New Haven Symphony opens its 2024-2025 season with Bryan’s Gathering Song (Sep 22) featuring baritone Eric Greene. The 2023 work, featuring a libretto by Tazewell Thompson, was praised as “transporting,” “thrilling,” and “prismatic” by The New York Times.
Bryan also curates a San Francisco Symphony Soundbox program (Jan 31-Feb 1), featuring orchestra members performing in an underground club atmosphere in the Soundbox space.
UNSUK CHIN
Esprit Orchestra performs Alaraph ‘Ritus des Herzschlags’ (Ritual of the Heartbeats) (Apr 17, Canadian premiere), inspired by the concept of “heartbeat stars”—star systems in eccentric orbits with vibrations caused by tidal forces. On May 10-11, cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare to perform Chin’s Cello Concerto, which Weilerstein has described as “one of the best concertos written for the instrument, period.”
Unsuk Chin curates the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Seoul Festival” (Jun 3-8), which includes performances of Gougalon (Jun 3) with the LA Phil New Music Group, Ensemble TIMF, and conductor Soo-Yeoul Choi, and her Clarinet Concerto (Jun 7-8) performed by soloist Han Kim with the LA Phil, conducted by Hankyeol Yoon.
ANNA CLYNE
Clyne’s Time and Tides (Oct 18-20, North American premiere) is performed by violinist Pekka Kuusisto with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tabita Berglund. The concerto draws on folk tunes from Finland, Scotland, and America, and explores themes of water, boating, and parting from loved ones.
Clyne unveils a new Concerto for Augmented Orchestra, PALETTE (February 14-15, world premiere), which uses live processing to enhance the score during the performance by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Stéphane Denève. The world premiere is followed by performances on Mar 1-2 with the New World Symphony. Each of PALETTE’s seven movements explores a different sound world correlating to a color: Plum, Amber, Lava, Ebony, Teal, Tangerine, and Emerald.
AARON COPLAND
A wave of performances points towards Copland’s 125th birthday, which is celebrated in November 2025. Highlights this season include performances of his Clarinet Concerto (Sep 26-28) with soloist William R. Hudgins, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Andris Nelsons; Appalachian Spring Suite and The Tender Land Suite (Nov 29-Dec 1) with The Cleveland Orchestra and David Robertson; and Symphony No. 3 (Jan 11-12), performed by Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted by recent Boosey signing Matthias Pintscher.
SEBASTIAN CURRIER
Currier unveils a brand-new choral piece, Mysterium (Feb 7, world premiere), performed by The Crossing and Donald Nally in Philadelphia. The epic hourlong work explores the connection between the cosmos and personal human experience through texts by renowned Dutch physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf and his wife, prominent novelist Pia de Jong. In Mysterium, Currier makes the inaudible audible by translating the radiation forces surrounding the Earth into soundwaves, perceived as gentle white noise that envelops the chorus and audience.
Ongoingness for harp and string quartet is performed by Bridget Kibbey and the Calidore String Quartet (who premiered the work in Toronto in 2024) in Philadelphia on April 6. Kibbey also performs the work with the Dover Quartet at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York on April 17.
BERND RICHARD DEUTSCH
Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in the world premiere of Urworte (Nov 21-23, world premiere), Bernd Richard Deutsch’s final commission as the orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow. The NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, MDR-Rundfunkchor, and NDR Vocalensemble, and Alan Gilbert perform the complete work in February (with additional movements).
PAQUITO D'RIVERA
Trumpet soloist Pacho Flores joins the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Domingo Hindoyan to perform D’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano (May 9-11). Flores, who commissioned the work as a part of a worldwide project to expand the trumpet concerto repertoire, tours the piece this season to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and Duisburger Philharmonic (German premiere).
ALBERTO GINASTERA
The Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel open their 2024-2025 season (Oct 1) and Carnegie Hall’s season (Oct 8) with Ginastera’s complete ballet Estancia. Based on the poem Martín Fierro by José Hernández written in the 1870s, the iconic ballet follows the adventures and hardships of an archetypal gaucho who struggles against the injustice of the times.
OSVALDO GOLIJOV
Metropolitan Opera presents composer Osvaldo Golijov and librettist David Henry Hwang’s Ainadamar (Oct 15-Nov 9), conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. The powerful homage to Federico García Lorca is presented in new production by Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker that garnered a wave of accolades during its tour to Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera, and Welsh National Opera. The Times called it the “rarest of things” and The Scotsman described it as “a simultaneous hit on all the senses, combining the noble passions of opera with the instant-fix adrenalin of a West End musical.” The production is a co-commission of Scottish Opera, Detroit Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, and Opera Ventures.
Colker’s production of Ainadamar also travels to Los Angeles Opera, conducted by Lina González-Granados (Apr 26-May 18).
On Feb 16, Boston Symphony Orchestra presents Golijov’s recent work LAIKA for singer and large ensemble, a heartfelt account of the first Soviet Space dog’s journey into space. The piece, which premiered at Carnegie Hall with Anthony Roth Costanzo and the Met Orchestra in 2024, is performed here by mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges and musicians of the BSO, conducted by Samy Rachid.
KARL JENKINS
Jenkins’s One World receives its North American premiere with DCINY and Jonathan Griffith at Carnegie Hall (Jan 20, North American premiere). Recorded last year on Decca Records, the hourlong score for vocal soloists, choir, and orchestra examines a world fractured by governments, climate change, human rights abuse, and war, and envisions a peaceful, compassionate, and egalitarian planet.
MAGNUS LINDBERG
Lawrence Power performs Magnus Lindberg’s Viola Concerto on tour this season, performing with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen (UK premiere), NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert (German premiere), and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and Aivis Greters (Austrian premiere) before presenting the North American premiere with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu (Mar 14-16, North American premiere). The concerto, written between 2023-2024, introduces a cast of different musical characters in the score—identified by different harmonies, tempos, and textures.
DAVID T. LITTLE
David T. Little unveils his latest stage work, What Belongs to You (Sep 26-28, world premiere), an opera for tenor and chamber orchestra in three parts based on Garth Greenwell’s critically acclaimed debut novel. GRAMMY-winning tenor Karim Sulayman stars alongside Alarm Will Sound and conductor Alan Pierson, directed by renowned choreographer and director Mark Morris, at the Modlin Center for the Arts in Richmond, Virginia.
Little’s Black Lodge (2024 GRAMMY nominee for Best Opera) is presented as an experiential Halloween event by CAP UCLA and Beth Morrison Projects (Oct 19) and at the Prototype Festival in New York City (Jan 11-15). Featuring a libretto by celebrated poet Anne Waldman and performances by Timur and the Dime Museum, Black Lodge is set in a nightmarish Bardo, a place between death and rebirth, where a tormented writer confronts demons of his own making in search of escape.
STEVEN MACKEY
Mackey’s electric guitar concerto Aluminum Flowers is performed by virtuoso guitarist JIJI with the San Antonio Philharmonic and Anthony Parnther (Apr 4-5). The recent 24-minute work is divided into five movements, each featuring a different guitar effect with the help of digital processing and pedals. Mackey explains: “Instead of writing for one identifiable guitar that you can follow as the protagonist throughout the piece, this is five different instruments.”
JAMES MACMILLAN
Composer-conductor James MacMillan is featured in multiple Minnesota presentations this spring. He makes his Minnesota Orchestra conducting debut (Mar 28-29) with Kiss on Wood, featuring cello soloist Sonia Mantell accompanied by string orchestra, and Woman of the Apocalypse, praised for its “big, splashy swirls of instrumental color” (San Francisco Chronicle).
VocalEssence, Minneapolis’s premier vocal ensemble, presents a two-day MacMillan Festival in April, featuring the world premiere of new choral work “Haec dies” alongside many other beloved MacMillan works for choir (Apr 4-6).
GRACE-EVANGELINE MASON
Available through December 31, Strathmore Music Center in Maryland invites visitors to experience “Sonic Trails: An Immersive Sound Experience” on its 16-acre campus. This self-led audio journey, set to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Grace-Evangeline Mason’s The Imagined Forest, enables listeners to explore different sections of the composition as they walk through the campus. Inspired by the collage work of Clare Celeste Börsch, the score evokes the liveliness of nature and the mystical qualities of the forest, offering a personal and transformative adventure.
EDGAR MEYER
Acclaimed composer-bassist Edgar Meyer debuts a new work for string trio, completing his cycle of string trios that includes Trio 1986 and Trio 1988. He performs all three trios with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman on a US tour that kicks off at Seattle’s Meany Hall (Oct 16, world premiere).
MEREDITH MONK
The 2024-2025 season marks Meredith Monk's 60th year of creating and performing. Park Avenue Armory present the highly anticipated North American premiere of Monk’s fully staged Indra’s Net (Sep 23-Oct 6, North American premiere). Inspired by an ancient Buddhist-Hindu parable about life's interconnectedness, the immersive piece combines performance and installation, performed by Monk together with members of her Vocal Ensemble, a 16-piece chamber orchestra, and an additional eight-member chorus.
GABRIELA ORTIZ
During the 2024-2025 season, Gabriela Ortiz holds prestigious residencies at Carnegie Hall, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and at the Curtis Institute of Music. Her residency as Carnegie Hall’s Debs Composer's Chair features seven concerts and multiple premieres throughout the season. Highlights include Dzonot, a cello concerto for Alisa Weilerstein, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Gustavo Dudamel (Oct 9, New York premiere); De Cuerda y Madera for violinist Maria Dueñas and pianist Alexander Malofeev (Oct 22, North American premiere), a new vocal ensemble work for Roomful of Teeth (Jan 25, world premiere), and a new string quartet for the Attacca Quartet (May 1, North American premiere).
The LA Phil, a longtime commissioning champion of Ortiz, presents the new cello concerto Dzonot on both the West and East coasts—the world premiere of Dzonot takes place at Disney Hall on October 3-4, one week before traveling to Carnegie Hall. The orchestra also performs Yanga for choir, percussion quartet, and orchestra (Nov 1-3) at Disney Hall with the LA Master Chorale and Tambuco Percussion Group.
Other orchestral highlights include performances led by close collaborator Carlos Miguel Prieto, who conducts Téenek—Invenciones de Territorio with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Nov 22-23) and the National Symphony Orchestra (Jan 16-18); Minnesota Orchestra performing Tzam (Nov 22-23) and Ortiz’s new violin concerto Altar de Cuerda with soloist Susie Park (Feb 14-15); and Marin Alsop conducting Antrópolis with the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien (Dec 12), San Francisco Symphony (Apr 10-11), and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Apr 17-19).
STEVE REICH
Two recent Steve Reich works are performed for the first time in Canada this season: Jacob’s Ladder (Dec 6, Canadian premiere) is performed by Synergy Vocals, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Otto Tausk; and Runner (Feb 23, Canadian premiere) is performed by Esprit Orchestra. Jacob’s Ladder is Reich’s most recent work for large ensemble, set to Biblical texts in Hebrew that describe a vision presented to Jacob, in which he sees a ladder between Heaven and Earth, with angels ascending and descending the rungs between the spaces.
Reich’s iconic 1988 string quartet Different Trains has been arranged for string orchestra and electronics. This landmark piece in music history is a personal reflection on the Jewish composer’s childhood riding trains across the US during World War II, while children in Europe were also riding trains across the continent to Holocaust camps. The work’s expanded string orchestra version, created in coordination with Oregon Symphony’s Creative Chair Gabriel Kahane, will be premiered by the Oregon Symphony and Deanna Tham (Feb 28, world premiere of version).
AZIZA SADIKOVA
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano perform Sadikova’s Farbenzeiten (Dec 10, North American premiere), a reimagination of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons for solo oboe, trumpet, cello, percussion, and orchestra. Sadikova describes the arrangement as an “expansion of the sonic palette of the master’s original score.” Nagano premiered the work earlier this year with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.
SEAN SHEPHERD
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has commissioned a new concerto for its principal winds (David Buck, flute; Erin Hannigan, oboe; Gregory Raden, clarinet; Ted Soluri, bassoon) from composer Sean Shepherd, who is a trained bassoonist. The world premiere on Apr 17-19 is conducted by music director Fabio Luisi.
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and conductor Cristian Macelaru present Shepherd’s Sprout (May 30-Jun 1), a hopeful reflection on the resilience of forests after wildfire. Shepherd explains that seeing the redwood forests sprout new growth after the destruction of the wildfires reminded him that in the face of environmental catastrophe “nature will not go down without a fight.” The five-minute work was originally premiered by Macelaru and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in 2021.
DONGHOON SHIN
Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä perform Donghoon Shin’s Upon His Ghostly Solitude (Oct 31-Nov 2), a Yeats- and Berg-inspired “orchestral showpiece” with “superb Mahlerian gestures” (Bachtrack). Vänskä, who has championed Shin’s music with multiple orchestras around the world, gave the world premiere performance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. San Francisco Classical Voice called it an “enormously colorful piece” and Musical America praised its “walloping, percussion-heavy crescendos of Bergian expressionism ... powerful stuff, worth hearing again.”
ANA SOKOLOVIC
This fall, Sokolovic’s Concerto pour orchestre (Nov 16-17) is performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Gustavo Gimeno. The piece draws inspiration from an unlikely pair, Beethoven and Rossini; it explores the former composer’s spirit of deep introspection while celebrating the latter’s light-hearted and accessible writing.
In the spring, Sokolovic writes You Can Die Properly Now for soprano and orchestra (May 28-29, world premiere) premiering with soprano Emma Pennel, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and Rafael Payare. The work sets texts by indigenous poet Michelle Sylliboy, and has been commissioned as a companion piece to Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde as part of a larger new music initiative examining what it means to be Canadian.
ERIC WHITACRE
The musicians and singers of DCINY perform Eric Whitacre’s The Gift of the Magi (Nov 26), a dramatic setting of a charming Christmas tale, alongside holiday classics with the composer on stage at Carnegie Hall.
In the spring, virtuoso violin soloist Anne Akiko Meyers performs the world premiere of Murmur (May 17, world premiere) with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.