The NSO, WNO, and Fortas Chamber Music Concerts Announce Their 24-25 Season

Here’s how the NSO announced its upcoming season: “Following the National Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 Europe Tour heralded by the Associated Press as “triumphant,” the NSO announces its 2024-2025 season, the orchestra’s 94th and GN’s 8th, honoring tradition alongside innovation and presenting celebrated artists, many of whom are making their debuts with the NSO.” 

There’s a lot to look forward to:  

An Opera-in-Concert series featuring Samuel Barber’s Vanessa with an all-star cast: Sondra Radvanovsky, J’Nai Bridges, Matthew Polenzani, Susan Graham, and Thomas Hampson. 

Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony 

Another tour with Hilary Hahn! This time to Florida in 2025. It’s their first domestic tour since 2011. They’ll be visiting Fort Myers, Vero Beach, Miami, West Palm Beach, and Sarasota. 

Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon kicks off the season on opening night with Four Black American Dances 

In mid-September Simon’s Here I Stand oratorio on the life of Paul Robeson will be heard in a performance featuring bass Morris Robinson and The Washington Chorus. 

New works will be highlighted throughout the season by such composers as   Julia Wolfe, Carlos Simon, and Alexander Raskatov. 

And Joshua Bell will perform “Elements,” a new suite written for him by American Composers Kevin Puts, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie and Jessie Montgomery 

Film buffs will enjoy Notes & Frames, a film and music festival: 

3 weeks exploring the overlap between film music and concert music, with a world premiere by academy award-winning composer Kris Bowers; Metropolis featuring organist Cameron Carpenter; Amadeus with Orchestra. 

Several remarkable artists will be making their NSO debuts, including 

Yunchan Lim, Sondra Radvanovsky, Alexandra Dovgan, Eugene Rogers, and Masaaki Suzuki.  

NSO Presents audience favorites Leonidas Kavakos and Daniil Trifonov in recital. 

We can look forward to an extraordinary season reflecting the vitality of the music world—full of new discoveries and old favorites. 

The season pays tribute to the grand tradition of opera, while shaping its future with two new productions, two WNO premieres, and a long-awaited revival, and features a stunning array of established and rising artists.  

WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and Music Director Designate Robert Spano open the season with a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio. 

A new production of Verdi’s Macbeth returns to WNO after 17 years 

WNO presents the premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs by Kennedy Center’s first Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell. “The story of Steve Jobs is the stuff of opera,” writes Mason Bates. “It’s got obsession, betrayal, love, passion, and the ultimate tragic death.  It exists at the intersection of creativity, technology, and human communication—thematic crossroads that opera can explore unlike any other medium.” 

Look forward to the revival of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Washington favorites Denyce Graves and Kenneth Kellogg are featured in the cast. 

The whole family will enjoy WNO’s holiday offering: Jungle Book with Bollywood dancing!  

There are two staged concerts: Gods and Mortals: A Celebration of Wagner featuring Christine Goerke and Brandon Jovanovich 

And American Rhapsody: with Renee Fleming, Denyce Graves, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Marin Alsop 

Oh, and before the season starts, be sure to cap off the summer with WNO’s free Opera in the Outfield at Nationals Park, featuring Turandot on August 24. 

As always, WNO is invested in fostering the next generation of artists, with the American Opera Initiative, the Marian Anderson Vocal Award, WNO Artist Ambassador Soloman Howard, and the Cafritz Young Artists program. 

From Beethoven to Bach and 40 new works, the 2024 season includes 8 concerts anchored by themes of evolution, mentorship, tradition, and innovation in chamber music. 

In November, Sounds of Us: An Immersive New Music Festival is a one-day festival that will fill The Reach with nonstop music and visual art with four mainstage concerts in Studio K alternating with free performances in the Peace Corps Gallery. More than 40 new works will be premiered during the festival. 

Throughout the season, celebrated quartets will perform a mix of standard and contemporary repertoire, all linked by Beethoven String Quartets, opening with the Isidore String Quartet...the Jasper String Quartet, the Miró Quartet, and the Takács Quartet. 

Recitals to note: Renowned pianist Maria João Pires and Korean piano sensation Yunchan Lim (the youngest person ever to win gold at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022. (this is a co-presentation with Washington Performing Arts) 

For the season’s grand finale, Artistic Director Jennifer Koh will take on the Herculean task of performing Bach’s Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin.