The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will mark its 121st year in 2027 with a season combining major symphonic repertoire, new Australian commissions, international artists and performances designed to broaden access to orchestral music across Melbourne and Victoria.
by Paul Cashmere
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2027 season will open with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as the orchestra marks the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death, while the year will also feature 13 world premieres of MSO commissions, the Australian premiere of Brett Dean’s The World’s Wife and the appointment of Melbourne-born conductor Nicholas Carter as Chief Guest Conductor.
The season, announced on Monday, August 10, continues the MSO’s programming emphasis on Australian composition alongside established European repertoire. It also includes collaborations with Australian artists including Troy Cassar-Daley, William Barton and Stan Grant, as well as international conductors and soloists making their Australian or MSO debuts.
MSO Chief Executive Richard Wigley said the orchestra’s focus remained centred on the concert experience and the repertoire.
“As we continue the journey from our 120th year towards our 125th, we do so with a clear sense of purpose,” Wigley said. “It’s all about great music.”
Chief Conductor Jaime Martín will begin his sixth season with the orchestra by conducting three Beethoven works, culminating in the Ninth Symphony and its setting of Friedrich Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”.
Across the season, Martín will also conduct programmes pairing Schubert with Mahler, Mozart with Brahms, Rachmaninov with Dvořák, Mozart with the Mendelssohns, and Sibelius with Shostakovich.
One of the season’s contemporary highlights will be the Australian premiere of The World’s Wife by Australian composer Brett Dean. The MSO co-commission premiered at the 2026 BBC Proms with British soprano Claire Booth, who will also make her MSO debut in 2027.
Other major programmes include Britten, Elgar & Walton, featuring William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Elgar’s Cello Concerto with Li-Wei Qin. Symphonic Swing will combine classical and jazz traditions, with Clark Rundell conducting the Australian premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto, featuring Austrian trumpeter Selina Ott in her MSO debut. The programme also includes music by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein and a new commission from Australian composer Vanessa Perica.
The international roster includes French conductor Chloé van Soeterstède, Venezuelan conductor Rodolfo Barráez, British pianist Paul Lewis and Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu, the MSO’s 2027 Featured Artist. Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado, Finnish conductor Eva Olikainen, South Korean violinist Inmo Yang and British-Singaporean mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron will make their Australian debuts with the orchestra.
Australian composition is central to the season. Among the MSO commissions is a new work by former MSO Composer in Residence Mary Finsterer with librettist Tom Wright, drawing on transcripts from the 1431 heresy trial of Joan of Arc. Benjamin Northey will conduct the world premiere, with the National Boys Choir of Australia and Trinity College Choir.
Composer Yitzhak Yedid’s The Valley of the Dry Bones, with a libretto by Stan Grant, will receive its world premiere with Eugene Ughetti conducting the MSO, MSO Chorus and The Consort of Melbourne. The work was commissioned through the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship Alumni Commissioning program.
The season also expands the MSO’s artistic leadership with Nicholas Carter becoming Chief Guest Conductor. Carter, who serves as General Music Director of the Staatsoper and Staatsorchester Stuttgart, will conduct Strauss & Schumann and Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony.
Carter has a longstanding connection with the orchestra and Melbourne. “The MSO gave me my first experience of orchestral music and first inspired me to become a conductor,” he said. “To return as Chief Guest Conductor is an enormous privilege.”
Beyond Hamer Hall, the MSO will continue its community and regional programming, including no-cost and low-cost performances, education initiatives and community-led events. The Sidney Myer Free Concerts will return, with the opening concert curated by Noongar artist Aaron Wyatt and featuring a new work by William Barton.
The 2027 season will also include A Midwinter Feast, Classical Spectacular, a NAIDOC Week collaboration with Troy Cassar-Daley, and performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Fourth Symphony.
For Martín, the season is intended to balance familiar repertoire with new music and artists.
“2027 will offer something to surprise, move and inspire,” he said.
The MSO enters its 121st year with a programme that places established orchestral works alongside a substantial commitment to Australian creation, while continuing its efforts to bring live symphonic music beyond the traditional concert hall.
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