New music director announces coming highlights for orchestra

Beijing Symphony Orchestra launched its 2025-2026 season on Sept 20 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall in the capital, followed by two dazzling opening concerts at the same venue that evening and at the Beijing Performing Arts Center on Sept 21.

The highlight of the season's opening was the appointment of renowned conductor Yang Yang as the orchestra's new music director and principal conductor.

Yang is celebrated as the founding director of the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, and music director of the China National Opera House.

He unveiled his artistic blueprint for the new season — a six-concert "Beethoven Project" to perform all nine Beethoven symphonies, along with plans to further deepen the orchestra's engagement with the Viennese classical tradition.

He also revealed that 2025 marks the 120th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich's birth and the 50th anniversary of his death, and that the orchestra will participate in global tributes by programming his works throughout the period.

The new season, spanning 10 months until July 2026, brings 23 concerts including symphonies, chamber music and operas, featuring nearly 100 works, both classical and contemporary.

International maestros, including Gilbert Varga, Claus Peter Flor, Ulrich Windfuhr and Markus Stenz, will join forces with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra for a rare complete cycle of Brahms' symphonies, hailed as a highlight for Beijing audiences.

Italian violinist Giulia Rimonda, making her China debut, opened the season with Ottorino Respighi's third violin concerto, Concerto Gregoriano.

Later in the season, violinists Leonidas Kavakos, Mayuko Kamio, Lyu Siqing, and Chen Xi will perform with the orchestra. Rising guitarist Junhong Kuang will honor the 125th anniversary of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo's birth with a performance of his Concierto de Aranjuez.

Leveraging Yang's dual role with the China National Opera House, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra will also stage two collaborative opera concerts, including a Verdi gala and a season finale of Beethoven's monumental Symphony No 9, featuring the chorus of China National Opera House.