New Zealand Symphony Orchestra 2026 Season

 Two extraordinary Wagner specialists combine to bring to life excerpts from two of Wagner’s most heroic and magnificent operas: Parsifal and Tannhäuser. Audience favourites, conductor Pietari Inkinen and New Zealand tenor Simon O’Neill, reunite in what promises to be a radiant Wagner extravaganza.

Arctic North meets Pacific South in a programme of heart-stirring Finnish works. Dramatic landscapes portrayed in music will resonate with Kiwi audiences. Two works from Sibelius feature, along with a New Zealand premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

Stamp the beat and feel the heat in this concert of pan-American dance and jazz music. The irrepressible American swagger of gangland New York is captured in Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and John Adams’s The Chairman Dances also feature.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s brightest young musicians perform as soloists and side-by-side with the NZSO in a concert celebrating the next generation of performers. Previous young artists have gone on to perform as soloists with the NZSO, NYO and other orchestras across Aotearoa New Zealand.

One of the world’s most acclaimed conductors, Sir Donald Runnicles, returns to conduct a concert of ravishing beauty. Richard Strauss’s Rosenkavalier Suite evokes the decadence of 18^th-century Vienna, while his sublime Four Last Songs are interpreted by the silver-voiced soprano Madeleine Pierard.

Mozart’s last piano concerto (No. 27) receives an intelligent and elegant interpretation by the dynamic British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason. To round out the programme, the NZSO performs two works that deserve a wider audience — Brahms’ Serenade and Elfrida Andrée’s Andante Recitative.

NZSO Principal Conductor Gemma New and legendary pianist Sir Stephen Hough present a concert of charm and mystery. Elgar’s masterpiece Enigma Variations is considered a work of compositional genius. It’s programmed with Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 and Ross Harris Concerto for Orchestra.

The grand finale of the NZSO’s season involves a monumental work of emotional power. For his 9^th symphony, Beethoven used an audacious juxtaposition of styles and forces. This included a choir, which was revolutionary at the time. Join four soloists and The Orpheus Choir in a thrilling end to the year.