Seattle Philharmonic announces 2025-26 Season

Adam Stern conducting the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra

SEATTLE PHILHARMONIC ANNOUNCES

2025-26 SEASON AT BENAROYA HALL

The Seattle Philharmonic, the oldest of Puget Sound's community orchestras, is pleased to announce details of their 2025-26 season of concerts at Benaroya Hall. Under the leadership of Music Director Adam Stern, the orchestra will perform four widely-varying programs comprising major works from 1717 to the present day, representing composers from seven different countries.

"As is always the case with the Philharmonic's repertoire, audiences will have chances to hear everything from beloved masterpieces to a collection of works they couldn't hear 'live' in concert in any other orchestra's season," Stern enthuses.

"I can comfortably program everything from Baroque music to works virtually created yesterday, knowing that the orchestra will shine in anything they perform."

Alongside familiar concert staples by Aaron Copland, Dmitri Shostakovich, George Frideric Handel, Franz von Suppé. Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, and Modest Mussorgsky, the Philharmonic will present U.S. and local premieres of music by Briar Prastiti, Jeanne Demessieux, Ruth Gipps, and Nicole Buetti. 

A major event will be the U. S. premiere of legendary organist/composer Jeanne Demessieux's sole large-scale work for organ and orchestra, the Poéme, featuring soloist Joseph Adam playing the Watjen Concert Organ at Benaroya Hall, the orchestra's home.

The season:

CONCERT ONE

"Joie de vivre, gaiety, brilliance": Shostakovich's Ninth
October 25, 2025 • 2:00pm • Benaroya Hall

• COPLAND An Outdoor Overture
• PRASTITI Ákri (U. S. premiere)
• STERN Two Illusions (Seattle premiere)
• MATTHEW LASLO, soloist
• SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 9 in E-flat, Op. 70

plus...a special Halloween treat: music from classic horror fIlms!

The Seattle Philharmonic has garnered enthusiastic renown for presenting Halloween-imbued concerts like no other orchestra. 

Our season opener will conclude with a suite of music from classic horror films from the 40s and 50s, as well as magician/illusionist Matthew Laslo sharing his wizardry accompanied by music specially written and arranged for him by Music Director Adam Stern. 

Adding to the program's luster will be a celebration of the 80th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No 9 (premiered November 3, 1945), and the U. S. premiere of Greek-New Zealander composer Briar Prastiti's Ákri. Aaron Copland's festive Outdoor Overture will begin this gala concert.

• • •

CONCERT TWO

"The master of all masters": Handel's Water Music
January 31, 2026 • 2:00 p.m. • Benaroya Hall

• GIPPS Symphony No. 1 (U. S. premiere)
• DEMESSIEUX Poéme for Organ and Orchestra, Op.9
• JOSEPH ADAM, soloist
• HANDEL Water Music (orch. Harty)

The Philharmonic has effectively become THE Ruth Gipps orchestra of the United States, acknowledged as such both here and abroad. Having given the U. S. premieres of three of her five symphonies, the orchestra will present the fourth such premiere of her Symphony No. 1, a must-hear for lovers of 20th-century English music. 

In a performance featuring Seattle's leading organist Joseph Adam, Benaroya Hall's Watjen Concert Organ will give voice to Jeanne Demessieux's Poéme for Organ and Orchestra, composed in 1949 and presented here in its U. S. premiere. A rousing version for modern symphony orchestra of George Frideric Handel's Water Music will close the program.

• • •

CONCERT THREE

"In such a night as this": Nocturnes

• MOZART Eine kleine Nachtmusik
• LILI BOULANGER Nocturne for Cello and Orchestra
• NADIA BOULANGER Three Pieces for Cello and Orchestra
• SOOHYUN JUHN, soloist
• VON SUPPÉ Overture, Poet and Peasant
• DEBUSSY Morceau
• Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
• Berceuse héroïque
• Three Nocturnes (with Seattle Girls Choir, Sarra S. Doyle, Director)

A nocturnal atmosphere hovers over this program bookended by two of the literature's most famous pieces inspired by the magic and mystery of the nighttime hours: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Claude Debussy's orchestral trilogy Nocturnes, the latter a collaboration with the acclaimed Seattle Girls Choir. 

The Philharmonic's principal cellist Soohyun Juhn takes the solo spotlight in works by sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger, including Lili's Nocturne. A handful of shorter Debussy works and Franz von Suppé's ever-popular overture to the operetta Poet and Peasant round out this unique concert.

• • •

CONCERT FOUR

"The gentle fragrance of love": Mahler's Rückert-Lieder

• BUETTI Restless Winds • Sforza! • Meet the Instruments: Fanfare
• MAHLER Rückert-Lieder
• STACEY MASTRIAN, soloist
• MUSSORGSKY Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

From among three choices, the members of the Seattle Philharmonic voted to close our season with Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in its most famous orchestration by Maurice Ravel. 

These resplendent symphonic canvases will share the bill with three short works by Nicole Buetti — one for strings, one for winds and brass, and one for the entire orchestra spotlighting the percussion. Soprano Stacey Mastrian makes a welcome return engagement to our stage in the most exquisite and intimate of Gustav Mahler's song cycles, the achingly beautiful Rückert-Lieder.

For further information on concerts and ticket availability, please go to seattlephil.org