Festivals
New name, new calendar, new music. Hear what's new at our Jazz Festival in March at Harvard Square's Arrow Street Arts, and don't miss the return of Stave Sessions to Davis Square's Crystal Ballroom in February.
Dance
The dance season continues, with two iconic American companies in venues big and small.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, in its first season under the leadership of incoming artistic director Alicia Graf Mack, delivers Revelations every performance, plus to-be-announced contemporary and classic selections that will move you, inspire your curiosity, and astound you.
We return to Boston Arts Academy Theater with the Vivo Performing Arts debut of Trisha Brown Dance Company. This brilliant postmodern company shares an overview of founder Trisha Brown's work: get to know selections from three of her fascinating choreographic "cycles" or conceptual eras.
Voices
From jazz to classical to singer-songwriters and beyond, it's a tremendous season for vocalists!
The United States' 250th anniversary year brings opportunities to consider where we are and where we've come from. Bass-baritone Davóne Tines partners with Baroque continuo band Ruckus to consider this country's Revolutionary era and its legacy. Singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane invites you to reflect on what unites and divides us now in his Book of Travelers. And, in a first, three of our frequent Neighborhood Arts partner organizations come together for a youth choir concert anchored in poems by Langston Hughes and Phillis Wheatley. Ruckus & Davóne Tines and our Youth Choral Festival are presented in partnership with Boston's Everyone250, reimagining how history is told.
Debuts to come in 2026 include crowd favorite Dianne Reeves' Vivo Performing Arts debut as a headliner. French soprano Axelle Fanyo, a rising star on opera stages and a recent Grammy Award winner, fills Pickman Hall with gorgeous French song and operatic selections. Acclaimed British vocal ensemble Tenebrae debuts, bringing us highlights from the island's storied choral traditions and contemporary works that inspire feelings of respite. Debuting singer-songwriter Elisapie beautifully reinvents iconic pop and rock songs in Inuktitut, an Inuit language, in a must-see Stave Sessions concert you'll be talking about for ages.
Curated Classical
There are dozens of classical music events, and you're going to love exploring them all. Here are a couple of trends that have surprised us this season!
Orchestras
Chicago Symphony Orchestra gives us an exciting preview of things to come when Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä brings his future ensemble to Symphony Hall. And Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra serve up Mahler's Third Symphony, a feast for music lovers. The longest symphony in the standard orchestral repertoire (and among the most sublime) calls for a mighty orchestra, adult and children's choirs, and an alto soloist.
After almost 20 years, the Vienna Philharmonic returns for a sold-out appearance under the baton of Andris Nelsons for Mahler's First Symphony and Bartók's Third Piano Concerto, featuring Lang Lang as the soloist.
Bach by the book
In the third of three all-Bach complete suites programs (following Yunchan Lim's Goldberg Variations and Yo-Yo Ma's Cello Suites) insightful French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard shines a new light on the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 at NEC's Jordan Hall in his belated Celebrity Series debut.
