Concert season 2025/26
The Zurich Opera Orchestra is starting the 2025/26 concert season under a new old name. After thirteen years as Philharmonia Zurich, the orchestra is returning to its original title. The focus of the seven Philharmonic concerts, which alternate between the Opera House and the Tonhalle Zurich, is on the great repertoire from Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms to Edward Elgar, Francis Poulenc and Sergei Prokofiev. Soloists such as violinist Renaud Capuçon and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen, violinist James Ehnes and Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann will be guests. General Music Director Gianandrea Noseda and conductors such as Pablo Heras-Casado, Elim Chan, Daniele Rustioni, Riccardo Minasi and Tugan Sokhiev will lead the orchestra.
The 2025/26 concert season at a glance
In the series of the in-house original-instrument ensemble La Scintilla, three major figures of Early Music—Emmanuelle Haïm, Enrico Onofri, and Stefano Montanari—return. The new festival «Zürich Baroque» offers several concert highlights before Easter. At the end of the season, Gianandrea Noseda will conduct a large open-air concert at Sechseläutenplatz as part of «Opernhaus für alle».
The chamber concerts form an important pillar of the program. In various formations and ensembles, the musicians of the Zurich Opera Orchestra will dedicate themselves to the broad repertoire. Classics will meet rarely heard works, Early Music will blend with Crossover. At the «Zur Premiere» concerts, specially tailored programs for each opera premiere will be performed. Additionally, special concerts on the studio stage will highlight influential composers of the first and second half of the 20th century, as well as contemporary composers.
Song recitals and gala concerts with star soloists such as Elīna Garanča, Asmik Grigorian, Camilla Nylund, Juan Diego Flórez, Benjamin Bernheim, Piotr Beczała, Franco Fagioli, and Michael Volle will also be offered to fans of vocal art during the 25/26 season.