BSO Announces 2024–25 Symphony Hall Season as Andris Nelsons Celebrates His Tenth Anniversary as Music Director

In celebration of Andris Nelsons’ tenth anniversary as music director, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 2024–25 season delves deeper into the popular programmatic themes from Nelsons’ first decade with the orchestra and offers Symphony Hall audiences an exceptional variety of music in wide-ranging styles. Nelsons’ ongoing dedication to vocal, American, and contemporary music—and the BSO’s Grammy Award-winning Shostakovich cycle—are featured front and center, among other highlights. The 2024–25 season also marks the debut of Carlos Simon as its Deborah and Philip Edmundson Composer Chair, a three-season position in which the composer and educator will contribute several new works to the BSO’s repertoire, work together with Nelsons to curate concert programs, and lead educational and outreach initiatives.

The three distinct concerts planned for Opening Weekend (Sept. 19–21) offer programs designed to engage and excite a broad range of audiences, from Thursday’s BSO Fundraising Gala featuring superstar soloists and premiering a new commission by Simon to Friday’s Boston Pops concert with Cirque de la Symphonie to Saturday’s free Concert for the City planned in collaboration with community partners.

Throughout the season, the orchestra will draw connections across a broad range of disciplines as part of its commitment to the newly established Humanities Institute. With focuses on the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and 20th-century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, the Humanities Institute will serve to contextualize the BSO’s musical programming while building on the BSO’s history as an orchestra of ideas, augmenting the work of the Tanglewood Learning Institute (TLI) through collaborations with other organizations to strengthen community connections and welcome new audiences.

Partnering with the BSO for these concerts and initiatives will be some of the great solo performers of our time, including appearances by sopranos Renée Fleming and Christine Goerke; pianists Inon Barnatan, Jonathan Biss, Jan Lisiecki, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Sergio Tiempo, and Mitsuko Uchida; organist Olivier Latry; cellists Alban Gerhardt and Yo-Yo Ma; violinists Isabelle Faust, Baiba Skride, and Frank Peter Zimmermann, among many others.

For more information, download the complete release.