Sydney Symphony Orchestra 2026 Season
Sounds like…
One musician is capable of so much. But an orchestra – with 80, 90, 100 musicians striving and urging and pushing as one – sounds like so much more. It sounds like power. Like inspiration. It is a sound that surrounds you, lifts you and stays with you.
Our 2026 Season is full of music that is bold, moving and unforgettable. Chief Conductor Simone Young leads a Season full of music that is bold, moving and unforgettable, brought to life by the world’s finest guest soloists and conductors and an orchestra the equal of any in the world. All brought to life by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
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Welcome to the 2026 Season from Chief Conductor Simone Young
In our modern world, everything seems fleeting and impermanent.
Which is why music – and especially live performance – remains so vital to the human condition. Nothing can replicate the feeling of being in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall with these extraordinary sounds surrounding you; nothing compares to the emotional journey music takes you on, inspiring feelings you didn’t even know you had.
Where everything else is shallow, live music offers depth.
In 2026, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra gives you total immersion in the most beautiful music ever written and rich, fulfilling experiences with the great artists of our time.
We begin our year with The Song of the Earth, Mahler’s moving meditation on life and death, and finish with the cataclysmic conclusion to Wagner’s Ring Cycle: Götterdämmerung, the Twilight of the Gods.
We welcome some of the world’s greatest musicians to Sydney, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leonidas Kavakos, Gil Shaham, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Yeol Eum Son, Isata Kanneh-Mason and Sir Bryn Terfel; conducting colleagues including David Robertson, Stéphane Denève, André de Ridder, Anja Bihlmaier and Nicholas Carter, and of course our titled conductors Sir Donald Runnicles and Benjamin Northey.
You will discover even more aspects to the artistry of major artists Bryn Terfel, Håkan Hardenberger, Bryce Dessner and Anna Lapwood, as they join us for mainstage orchestral concerts as well as solo recitals, masterclasses and chamber orchestra performances.
We take you deeper into the music than ever before through our reimagined Learning & Engagement programs, featuring open rehearsals, relaxed performances, a new concert series starring our Sydney Symphony Fellows and a Schools Program that will touch the lives of over 15,000 students across NSW.
And in my fifth season as Chief Conductor, a year in which I also mark 30 years since my Sydney Symphony debut, I am excited for the continued deepening and strengthening of this most fulfilling artistic partnership.
This is a season of tremendous richness, performed by an orchestra the equal of any in the world. I hope you will join us.
Simone Young AM
Chief Conductor
Sydney Symphony Orchestra