Sydney Symphony Orchestra
Season 2025
Feel the connection
Music is all about connection – and it is the connection between the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the audience that makes a performance unforgettable.
In 2025, feel the connection with the world’s leading artists, including pianists Lang Lang and Daniil Trifonov and Chief Conductor Simone Young. It’s a season full of timeless favourites and tomorrow’s classics from the grand and exhilarating to the tender and intimate, including Beethoven Ninth Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony.
All brought to life by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
August
Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert
14 – 17 Aug 2025
Experience the iconic adventure that launched the legendary Star Wars franchise, accompanied by the full Force of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing John Williams’ Oscar®-winning score live to film. Luke Skywalker begins a journey that will change the galaxy in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Stephen Layton conducts Bach, Mozart & Handel
21 & 23 Aug 2025
Stephen Layton is one of the world's greatest choral conductors, an expert in vocal music from the Renaissance to the modern day. In this concert Stephen Layton conducts Baroque and Classical masterpieces by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Haydn, featuring guest soloist Sara Macliver.
Peter and the Wolf
23 Aug 2025
Join the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House for Peter and the Wolf, an enchanting musical tale that has been inspiring young music lovers for generations. This enchanting musical tale follows Peter, a young boy who sets out into the deep forest to catch a wolf. Peter, his grandfather and their animal friends are brought to life by their own instrument, and students will hear the ingenious ways that Prokofiev tells this story through the unique sounds of orchestral instruments.
Schoenberg & Williams
29 & 30 Aug 2025
Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night is an intoxicating work. Influenced hugely by Brahms and Wagner in both the richness of the writing and the high drama of the narrative it depicts. Transfigured Night is one of the great works of late Romantic chamber music. Based on a work by German poet Richard Dehmel, it portrays an emotionally charged scene between two lovers; opening with an extraordinarily atmospheric section that draws us into the layered weight of night, before the finale draws the lovers together in ecstasy.
Mozart & Beethoven
29 & 30 Aug 2025
These brilliant masterpieces by Beethoven and Mozart are often overlooked, but no less accomplished. There’s a freshness to a hidden gem, and in this concert that sense is beautifully captured by rising star conductor Dmitry Matvienko and incredible violin soloist Akiko Suwanai. Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto is one of his most popular, revealing all the brilliance of a prodigious teenager. Suwanai summons its youthful character with pristine clarity.
September
Simone Young conducts Richard Strauss
3 – 6 Sep 2025
Richard Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra launched into popular consciousness in the 1960s, dramatically underscoring the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss’ sublime shifts from darkness to light are timeless, and jaw-dropping to experience live. Chief Conductor Simone Young is one of the world’s leading interpreters of Strauss’ music. In this concert she draws out the vast power of these works, alongside Australian pianist Andrea Lam and the virtuosity of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Donald Runnicles conducts Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony
12 – 14 Sep 2025
You can feel the tension in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Written after he had been denounced by Stalin for writing ‘muddle instead of music’, Shostakovich’s response was this symphony. Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony is a mighty, sweeping masterpiece that unleashes the full power of the orchestra; a bold statement that found universal approval. Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles is world-renowned for connecting audiences to the emotion of music, which means you’ll feel every dramatic twist and turn, with goosebumps guaranteed in the blazing finale.
Donald Runnicles conducts Sibelius & Wagner
18 – 20 Sep 2025
Join the Sydney Symphony on this thrilling voyage across two striking visions of the ocean paired with Sibelius’ sweeping Symphony No.2. World-renowned Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles summons every ounce of passion from the talented musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The Music of Joe Hisaishi
24 – 27 Sep 2025
Known for his close association with the films of Studio Ghibli and Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Hisaishi has created the stunning musical accompaniment to countless films including Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle.
October
Mozart & Harrison
10 & 11 Oct 2025
The combination of clarinet and strings is a perfect match, the mellow woodwind balanced beautifully against the sprightly strings. Mozart was the first to explore this combination in his Clarinet Quintet of 1789, written for Anton Stadler, the most gifted clarinettist in Vienna at the time. Across four exquisite movements we hear a gentle lullaby, a lively dance and lyrical passages that could almost be opera arias; while the clarinet is first among equals, all five instruments shine in this exquisite piece.
Kutcha Edwards & the Sydney Symphony
14 Oct 2025
Kutcha Edwards is a force of nature. Come together at the Sydney Opera House as iconic activist and multi award-winning songwriter Kutcha Edwards – ‘quite possibly the finest contemporary singer of his generation’ (Rhythms Magazine) – presents Ngarli-Wangu, together with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey.
Lime Cordiale with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra
16 – 18 Oct 2025
Join Lime Cordiale on this transformative emotional journey at the Sydney Opera House, together with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Together with conductor Vanessa Scammell and arranger Alex Turley, the band have dug through their entire catalogue and selected a killer setlist to give the symphonic treatment to.
Daniel Müller-Schott performs Tchaikovsky
22 – 25 Oct 2025
The enchanting worlds of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Dukas are full of magic and mischief, and utterly captivating to experience firsthand. This is Romantic music to fire your imagination, showcasing the full potential of the orchestra in a display of vitality, playful drama and virtuosity.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
31 Oct – 2 Nov 2025
This concert is a celebration of everything stirring and sensuous in Romantic music, led by Sydney Symphony’s Chief Conductor Simone Young. Simone Young recently conducted Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina in Berlin, performances hailed as ‘…quite simply, outstanding in every way’ (Seen and Heard International). She brings that interpretive brilliance to Pictures at an Exhibition, with its heart-stopping contrasts, vivid stories and dramatic scenes that the Romantics are famous for. Close your eyes and be transported to The Great Gate of Kyiv.
November
Simone Young conducts Siegfried
13 & 16 Nov 2025
Wagner’s Ring Cycle is one of the great achievements in Western art. At its beating heart – packed with passion, violence, rage, betrayal and tragedy – sits the sprawling legend of Siegfried. Starring a world-class cast of singers, including internationally acclaimed Simon O’Neill in the title role, this third instalment in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Ring Cycle in concert is a once-in a-generation event.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Simone Young
26 – 29 Nov 2025
The ‘Ode to Joy’, the finale of Beethoven’s irrepressible Ninth Symphony, is one of the most famous melodies ever written. It’s a special moment in music that makes us feel connected to each other, and for over 200 years it has engulfed us in its boundless energy. When you hear it live, the power of so many triumphant voices is astonishing.
December
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
2 & 3 Dec 2025
Australia’s own genre-hopping superstars King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard add another string to their bow with their first-ever orchestral concerts!
Marvel’s Infinity Saga Concert Experience
5 – 7 Dec 2025
Avengers, assemble! Experience Marvel’s Infinity Saga like never before, with this brand-new film concert spanning 23 movies in one unforgettable event, with music performed live by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
A Welcome to the 2025 Season from Sydney Symphony Chief Conductor Simone Young
Music is all about connection.
Individual notes connecting to form a mighty symphony. Musicians connecting to conjure entire universes of emotion. But it is the connection with and amongst the audience that makes a performance unforgettable. Sitting in the dark, immersed in
this remarkable music, we all experience something unique – and yet are connected in the profound experience of live music.
In 2025, we invite you to delve deeper into this extraordinary music as we re-connect with great works and great artists and make new connections with rising stars and less familiar masterpieces. Opening with Mahler’s Third Symphony and concluding with Beethoven’s Ninth, together we will rediscover great masterpieces and be reminded of their timelessness.
We will explore lesser-known works by great composers, including Elgar, Richard Strauss and Vaughan Williams, and encounter new aspects of their artistry. And we will experience exciting new works by brilliant contemporary voices, and hear some of what our world sounds like today. All this brought to life by our superb Orchestra in world-class concert halls.
Superstar pianist Lang Lang returns to Sydney for two very special concerts. We spend one big week with pianist Daniil Trifonov, including a Rachmaninov concerto and two recitals of Schubert songs with baritone Matthias Goerne. And we look forward to two weeks with Sir Stephen Hough, performing concertos by Felix Mendelssohn and Brahms.
We welcome back our Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles, and we reunite with pianists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and Javier Perianes; violinists James Ehnes and Arabella Steinbacher; and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, who bring their superb talents back to Sydney.
We forge new connections with artists making their Sydney Symphony debuts, from established stars such as Marc-André Hamelin, Edward Gardner, Sasha Cooke, Lise de la Salle and Akiko Suwanai to the new generation of talent including Kian Soltani, Daniel Lozakovich, Eva Gevorgyan, Finnegan Downie Dear and Roderick Cox.
And our multi-year Ring Cycle in concert continues with Siegfried. I am thrilled to bring a world-class cast of singers to realise the musical and dramatic centrepiece of Wagner’s epic work.
2025 promises to be a year of extraordinary excitement and richness. I hope you will join us.
Simone Young AM
Chief Conductor
