The Singapore Symphony Orchestra is delighted to launch its new 2024/2025 season with key highlights including Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Â
In addition to the well-loved SSO National Day Concert, Concerts for Children, and SSO Pops series and free outdoor performances to look forward to, the new season marks a significant milestone for SSO as they will be collaborating with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for the choral-orchestral spectacular – Carmina Burana. The SSO will also be making their Australian debut in February 2025, with stops in Brisbane, Melbourne, and the iconic Sydney Opera House.
SSO Announces 2024/2025 Season Line-Up and Australian Tour
The new season opens with Beethoven’s triumphant Choral Symphony, followed by an exciting series of concerts featuring world-class artists including Maxim Vengerov, Hélène Grimaud, Steven Isserlis, Daniil Trifonov, Chloe Chua and more.
Together with the Singapore Symphony Choruses, the SSO will also perform the thrilling Carmina Burana in a joint concert with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Choruses. The well-received SSO National Day Concert, Concerts for Children, and SSO Pops series and free outdoor performances continue to be staples in the calendar.
Artist Highlights
Classical music lovers can look forward to concerts featuring world-renowned soloists such as violinists Maxim Vengerov, James Ehnes and Yu-Chien Tseng, pianists Hélène Grimaud, Daniil Trifonov and Behzod Abduraimov, cellist Steven Isserlis, erhu player Yiwen Lu and trumpeter Pacho Flores. Vengerov and Grimaud will also be presenting solo performances in not-to-be- missed recitals.
SSO Music Director Hans Graf will conduct nine programmes, including concert hall favourites such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mendelssohn’s complete music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. SSO Associate Conductor Rodolfo Barráez will continue to helm the SSO’s popular community outreach concerts and annual SSO Christmas Concert, which sees the return of Handel’s Messiah to the year-end yuletide season. Acclaimed guest conductors Vasily Petrenko, Mario Venzago, Lawrence Renes and Long Yu will make a welcome return, and former SSOPrincipal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu will also conduct Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and Second Symphony.
Spotlighting Homegrown Talents and SSO Musicians
The orchestra continues to shine the spotlight on Singapore’s brightest music stars including violinist Chloe Chua, conductor Kahchun Wong, soprano Victoria Songwei Li and mezzo-soprano Jade Tan. Pianists Toby Tan and Adrian Tang will showcase their finesse in Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev at this year’s President’s Young Performers Concert. In addition, audiences can also expect to hear new and established works by composers Koh Cheng Jin, Emily Koh, Lee Jinjun, Kelly Tang and the late Leong Yoon Pin this season. Furthermore, for the first time, winning entries from a Call for Compositions will be premiered at the SSO National Day Concert.
SSO’s very own musicians will also take centre stage in the 2024/25 season. Principal Cellist/The HEAD Foundation Chair Ng Pei-Sian will perform Brahms’s Double Concerto with violinist Chloe Chua, while Principal Horn Austin Larson will play Mozart’s delightful Horn Concerto No. 4, and Principal Clarinet Ma Yue will bring to life Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto. Violinist Chan Yoong-Han will play the solo in John Williams’s moving Schindler’s List for SSO Pops: Classics at the Movies, and violinist Foo Say Ming will perform for a SSO Organ Series concert, while Principal Harp Gulnara Mashurova will feature in two French-themed SSO Chamber Series concerts this October.
SSO Goes on Tour
Other notable highlights of the season include a highly anticipated collaboration between the Singapore and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and Choruses for the choral-orchestral spectacular – Carmina Burana. The SSO will also be making their Australian debut in February 2025, with stops in Brisbane, Melbourne, and the iconic Sydney Opera House. This is SSO’s first overseas engagement since 2017.
Concerts for Children and Free Performances
In line with the orchestra’s mission to create memorable shared experiences with music, and enrich our diverse communities, the 2024/25 season will also bring back the popular SSO Babies’ Proms and Concerts for Children, as well as free outdoor and community performances at the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Gardens by the Bay and Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary).
Singapore Symphony Choruses
The Singapore Symphony Choruses family comprises the Singapore Symphony Chorus, Youth Choir and Children’s Choir. Every season, they perform in different combinations suited to the occasion. As the symphonic choirs of the SSO, their voices rise to their greatest heights combined in harmony with a full symphony orchestra. In the 2024/25 season, hear them in three of the grandest works in music history: Beethoven's Ode to Joy - the heart of his Ninth Symphony, Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and the spectacular choral-orchestral extravaganza, Carmina Burana, where they will be
joined by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
Come the Christmas season, hear the choruses in two joyous concerts: Gloria! - the splendour of music from Baroque to contemporary times celebrating the yuletide season, led by distinguished UK choral conductor Stephen Layton; and the ever-popular SSO Christmas Concert in December2024. In the latter, the Christmas-time staple, Handel's Messiah makes a welcome return to the Victoria Concert Hall, alongside popular Christmas carols.
Singapore National Youth Orchestra
Besides playing side-by-side with the SSO at this year’s National Day Concert, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra will be conducted for the first time by SSO Music Director Hans Graf in March 2025.
Tickets for the SSO 2024/25 season go on sale from 7 May 2024.
Visit www.sso.org.sg to view the complete 2024/25 season