Presenting 170 events across the year, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Season 2025 celebrates live orchestral music and its distinctive power to deeply immerse both musicians and audiences into the essence of a work.

The 2025 mainstage program features 35 Australian works, and the world premieres of 16 new commissions and co-commissions, including six works by female composers and six by First Nations artists. The stellar line up of international and Australian musicians joining the MSO marks six Australian debuts and 12 MSO debuts.

Visiting international superstars include the unbridled brilliance of Chinese pianist Lang Lang (with the MSO and, separately, in Recital), the highly anticipated Australian debut of multi–Grammy Award-winning American soprano Joyce DiDonato, and British pianist Nicholas McCarthy making his Australian debut playing Ravel’s unique Concerto for the Left Hand.

The internationally acclaimed Singapore Symphony Orchestra will tour Australia for the first time with a spectacular program conducted by artistic director Hans Graf featuring 17-year-old violin sensation Chloe Chua and Australian-born principal cellist Ng Pei-Sian.

In his fourth year leading the MSO, Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor Jaime Martín conducts works from Brahms, Ravel, Mozart, the Mendelssohn siblings, Mahler, Rachmaninov, and the Australian premiere of a new MSO commission from internationally acclaimed musician and 2025 Composer in Residence Liza Lim AM, Cello Concerto: A Sutured World, featuring German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt.

Martín and the MSO officially begin Season 2025 with the Ryman Healthcare Season Opening Gala performance of Mahler's Symphony No.2 Resurrection featuring Australian soprano Eleanor Lyons and Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison making their MSO debuts. Superstar pianist Lang Lang headlines the Winter Gala in June with Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.2, and sensational American soprano Joyce DiDonato makes her Australian debut at the Spring Gala in November.

The 150th anniversary of Maurice Ravel’s birth will be celebrated throughout the year with Jaime Martín conducting La Valse in the Joined with Gold concert in March, and a rare performance of the full ballet score for Daphnis et Chloé in April.

Impressions of Paris, conducted by Chloé van Soeterstède features British pianist Nicholas McCarthy playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and Martín and the MSO will perform the composer’s Alborada del gracioso as part of the Ryman Healthcare Winter Gala, as well as alongside Mussorgsky’s (arr. Ravel) Pictures at an Exhibition in an MSO Mornings performance. Ravel’s Boléro also features in the Classic Kids program, Eliza’s Orchestral Adventures.

Maestro Martín will conduct two additional MSO Morning concerts featuring Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, and Italian composer Respighi’s majestic symphonic poems, Pines of Rome and Fountains of Rome.

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor—Learning and Engagement Benjamin Northey leads the MSO for Asia TOPA’s opening night - a one-night-only marquee evening of Asia-Pacific art and performance that includes a newly commissioned work from renowned composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

Northey will explore the works of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius across two programs – one alongside members of Melbourne Youth Orchestra and A Celebration of Sibelius at the Melbourne Town Hall, featuring violinist Edward Walton, one of Australia’s most promising young musicians.

Violin wunderkind and MSO Young Artist in Association, Christian Li features in A Reflection in Time, conducted by Northey, with a riveting program of symphonic powerhouses from Barber, Korngold and Shostakovich. In an extension of the MSO’s popular Relaxed Performances, this program will include a Relaxed evening performance for audiences who would prefer a more informal concert setting.

Throughout the year the classical masters receive the MSO treatment with Umberto Clericiconducting Brahms and Tchaikovsky; Vasily Petrenko conducting Bruckner and Strauss; and making her MSO debut, South Korean conductor Shi-Yeon Sung leads the MSO and Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, with a new work from Cybec Young Composer in Residence Klearhos Murphy.

An Evening of Fairy Tales, conducted by Alpesh Chauhan in Melbourne and Geelong features fantastic classical music from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Prokofiev’s Cinderella and Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty.

Piano lovers and aficionados are in for a program of powerhouse piano concerts along with a special solo recital from one of the most adored pianists of our time, Lang Lang performing works by Chopin including an assortment of Mazurkas— traditional Polish folk dances which Chopin defined as a piano genre—alongside gems by Fauré and Schumann.

Described as “the most astounding pianist of our age” (The Times of London), Russian pianistDaniil Trifonov performs Rachmaninov’s exhilarating Third Piano Concerto, and highly sought-after conductor Elim Chan (HK) makes her MSO debut with Ukrainian-Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk and the MSO with a performance of Grieg's delightful and dramatic Piano Concerto.

French conductor Chloé van Soeterstède makes a welcome return to lead the MSO for the evocative Impressions of Paris in October. The concert features the Australian debut of acclaimed British pianist and champion of left-hand alone repertoires Nicholas McCarthy playing Ravel’s unique Concerto for the Left Hand, and the world premiere of a new MSO Commission from First Nations Composer in Residence James Henry.

Featured throughout the season, MSO’s 2025 Artist in Residence, Canadian violinist James Ehnes performs Brahms’ Violin Concerto, and showcases The Heart of the Violin with an all-strings program in the Melbourne Recital Centre, bridging the old and new world with works ranging from classical to contemporary. The program includes work from GRAMMY Award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery, Mozart and Dvorák.

Other instrumental showcases include The Voice of the Viola with Fiona Sargeant and the MSO conducted by Leonard Weiss; Horn Trios curated by violinist Freya Franzen; Four Bassoonscurated by MSO contrabassoonist Brock Imison; and The Soul of the Cello directed and performed by ACO Principal Cellist Timo-Veikko Valve.

In a meeting of disparate traditions Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and First Nations storytelling come together on stage in Seasons, curated by Noongar conductor Aaron Wyatt and directed by James Ehnes. Alongside Vivaldi’s much-loved classic the MSO will perform works depicting the indigenous seasons from First Nations composers William Barton, James Henry, Christopher Sainsbury, Brenda Gifford and Aaron Wyatt.

Martín continues to showcase First Nations music, taking the audience to New Worlds with the Australian premiere of the latest composition from First Nations Creative Chair Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, the concert overture from Florence Price the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra, and Dvorák’s soulful Ninth Symphony.

Australian composers step into the limelight for two concerts to be conducted by BenjaminNorthey and co-curated with Liza Lim at the Melbourne Recital Centre, under the Metropolis new music banner. Featured composers include Holly Harrison, Ella Macens, Fiona Hill, Liza Lim, Peggy Polias, William Barton and Matthew Hindson. Lim and the MSO have also commissioned Jessica Wells to compose a Guzheng concerto for the Metropolis season, featuring Mindy Meng Wang, one of the world’s finest players of the Chinese zither.

Celebrating their 60th anniversary, the MSO Chorus under Director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, will perform music fit for royalty in Coronation Anthems and an evening of glorious large-scale choral works conducted by Nicholas Carter including Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor and Brahms’ Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny).

In Journeys the Chorus explores the music of Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, famous for his motets, and complementary modern works including Australian composer Joseph Twist’s motet that pays tribute to Victoria himself.

The MSO continues its support of emerging artists through the Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers program which will showcase new MSO commissions by Andrew Aronowicz, Zinia Chan, Robert McIntyre and Rachel Meyers who have been mentored by leading Australian composers. The concert will be conducted by 2025 Cybec Assistant Conductor Leonard Weiss.

Family-friendly programming includes three Classic Kids concerts, Wizardry School in May, Eliza’s Orchestral Adventures, and A Symphonic Christmas in December, and the sell-out Jams for Juniors series returns for another season with MSO Artist in Residence, Learning and Engagement, Karen Kyriakou.

The MSO’s hugely popular program of live to screen concerts continues with Raiders of the Lost Ark in Concert, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Concert and family favourite How to Train Your Dragon in Concert, 15 years after its film premiere.

Perennial favourites include the annual Chinese New Year Concert in February, with renowned conductor Lü Jia, Musicians of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, highly lauded pianist Haochen Zhang, and, in her Australian debut, Zhang Hongyan on pipa (Chinese lute).

Free concerts will return to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Summer with Jaime Martín making his Bowl debut, while the ABC Classic 100 in Concert returns to Hamer Hall followed by the annualNAIDOC Week Celebrations.

Sharing orchestral music across the state is as important as ever, and in 2025 the MSO will perform in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Frankston, Monash and Nunawading. The season draws to a rousing close with the annual performance of Handel's Messiah with Swedish conductor Sofi Jeannin making her MSO debut.

2025 MSO Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor Jaime Martin welcomes audiences to “a year of musical journeys and adventures, including the celebration of Maurice Ravel in his 150^thanniversary year, the continuation of the MSO’s exploration of Mahler and Dvorak, and an exciting and varied program of classical and contemporary music for Victorian music lovers.”