New Zealand Symphony Orchestra 2025 Season

The hammer of fate strikes in this colossal masterpiece. Maestro Gemma New continues NZSO’s cycle of Mahler symphonies with his Sixth Symphony, nicknamed “Tragic”.

Aotearoa’s brightest young musicians perform as soloists and side-by-side with the NZSO in a concert celebrating the next generation of performers.

Choirs New Zealand and four extraordinary voices show their range in Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater’. This majestic work is based on the suffering of the Virgin Mary at the crucifixion of her son. Kiwi composer Victoria Kelly’s contemporary appraisal of Mary, motherhood, and women will stand in dialogue. 

Lazy summer afternoons and brisk winter winds are invoked in this evening of Vivaldi. Pekka Kuusisto, a one-of-a-kind violinist delivers his take on an old classic and a new favourite. 

Be swooned by an evening rich with Romanticism. With a cello concerto performed by Iranian-Austrian Kian Soltani and Conductor Simone Young’s interpretation of Wagner’s Prelude to ‘Lohengrin’.

The youngest instrument in the orchestral whānau, the saxophone, gets its name in lights. UK saxophonist Jess Gillam shows her range with the late Romantic style of Glazunov’s concerto and Milhaud’s Brazilian-influenced ‘Scaramouche’.

American treasure Joyce DiDonato graces New Zealand shores with her luminous mezzo-soprano voice. Described by the New Yorker as ‘increasingly incomparable’, DiDonato heralds the summer with Berlioz’s ‘Les nuits d’été’ (Summer Nights).

In this final performance for the year, NZSO sounds the trumpets. American Gail Williams leads an evening of bold classics, fantastic fanfare, and even the odd Christmas carol or two.