Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra Open the 2023–24 Season

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Music Director Andris Nelsons open their 2023–24 season with two distinct programs, running from Thursday, October 5 through Saturday, October 7.

The celebratory weekend kicks off Thursday and Friday with a two-night program of Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture, a Suite from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Tango by Arturs Maskats, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, featuring soloist Rudolf Buchbinder.

The festivities continue on Saturday, October 7 with Opening Night at Symphony, a concert that places the Mozart and Beethoven pieces from the prior two nights in conversation with music inspired by Black American musical traditions. In this program, Nelsons will conduct Duke Ellington's New World A-Coming, featuring the Aaron Diehl Trio in their Symphony Hall debut; also appearing on the program is Tonk, a piano four-hands piece written with Ellington’s longtime collaborator Billy Strayhorn, performed here by Buchbinder and Diehl side by side. The program concludes with Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances, a BSO commission which was a centerpiece of the recent European tour programs.

An iconic institution whose local presence stretches from Boston Harbor to the Berkshires, the Boston Symphony Orchestra has formed a vital part of America's cultural fabric for 142 years. The BSO's 2023–24 season builds on the Symphony's place as a major cultural hub within a city of cultural hubs, nestled amongst the world's most respected educational institutions, some of America's finest conservatories, and in the heart of American history itself.

Over eleven weeks of concerts conducted by Music Director Andris Nelsons, fourteen works by living composers including five BSO co-commissions, and appearances by 32 guest artists and twelve guest conductors, the BSO and Andris Nelsons celebrate their tenth season together——and their first with CEO Chad Smith. Highlights include a season-long commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Serge Koussevitzky's birth as well as the 100th anniversary of his appointment as the BSO's Music Director; Nelsons-led concert performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with pianist Paul Lewis; the conclusion of the Symphony's complete performance cycle of the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, including performances of both the composer's cello concertos by Yo-Yo Ma; six programs in celebration of the 100th anniversary of György Ligeti’s birth; and two themed series: Music of the Midnight Sun, featuring classic and new works by Nordic composers, and Music for the Senses, which highlights works influenced by the five senses.

"Serge Koussevitzky envisioned the BSO as an orchestra at the vanguard, with seasons rich in festivals, commissioned works, and major symphonic cycles," says Boston Symphony Orchestra CEO Chad Smith. "As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth, and the 100th of his Music Directorship, we also recommit ourselves to his radical notion of orchestras as generative engines of new work."

For more information, download the complete release.