CSO announces 2026-2027 season
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced that conductor Klaus Mäkelä, who takes over as the orchestra’s 11th music director next year, will lead five weeks of subscription concerts in Chicago as well as an eight-city European tour during the 2026-2027 season.
The upcoming season also marks the return of music director emeritus Riccardo Muti, who will conduct a series of concerts during December of this year and April 2027.
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist and vocalist Andrew Bird, pianist Lang Lang and CSO’s new artist-in-residence pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet are among the musicians scheduled to perform this season.
Mäkelä conducts Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7 and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 4 in September. In October, he conducts Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. Also in October, Mäkelä welcomes baritone Thomas Hampson and the Chicago Symphony Chorus for a program that includes Giovanni Gabrieli’s “Canzon duodecimi toni” and Sonata pian’ e forte, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrushka” and “Belshazzar’s Feast” by William Walton.
Ma joins the CSO in November to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 during a concert that also includes Four Dances from “Estancia,” Alberto Ginastera’s 1941 ballet and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.
Lang joins the CSO in March 2027 to perform all five of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano concertos. The concerts also include the overtures to Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” “The Consecration of the House” and “The Creatures of Prometheus.”
The season commences Sept. 17 with former artist-in-residence violinist Hilary Hahn performing Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto conducted by Petr Popelka. The program also includes Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 5 and Robert Schumann’s overture to “Manfred,” based on the Lord Byron poem.
Season subscriptions start at $88 for the three-concert packages and $180 for the four-concert packages. They are available at cso.org; (312) 294-3000; in person at 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago; or by mail. Individual tickets go on sale in August.