RSNO Launches 2025/26 Concert Season
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) launches its 2025:26 Concert Season, featuring Scottish talent, contemporary composers and new commissions.
The 2025/26 Season explores brand new music, celebrates living composers and brings old favourites to communities all across Scotland under the artistic leadership of Music Director Thomas Søndergård.
Music Director Thomas Søndergård continues his epic Mahler cycle
Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Hahn swaps podium for piano
Anthony Parnther joins as Featured Artist for 2025:26 Season
Celebrating the sounds and sights of home
Committed to new works and contemporary voices
Red carpet rolled out with RSNO at the Movies
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RSNO Chief Executive Alistair Mackie said:
‘I am so pleased to share our new 2025/26 Concert Season. I am very happy to welcome back Thomas Søndergård to his eighth Season as Music Director and Patrick Hahn to his second as Principal Guest Conductor. Both of these fantastic conductors have a raft of concerts which I am highly anticipating, including Thomas’s return to his Mahler Cycle and Patrick putting down his baton for a spin on the piano.
‘Testament to the reputation of the RSNO is the talent on display this coming Season from both home and away, and from within our own ranks. To name just a few, Nicola Benedetti, Ethan Loch and Karen Cargill are back representing the Scots, Lithuanian conductor Giedrė Šlekytė and German violinist Veronika Eberle make their debuts with the RSNO, and pianist Makoto Ozone joins us again all the way from Japan. It’s a particular pleasure to be able to turn the spotlight on our own section principals, Paul Philbert, Christopher Hart and Nikita Naumov, who will be performing as soloist during the Season.
‘Our Engagement work here at the RSNO is one of the great privileges of my job. Next Season is no different with our National Schools Concert Programme taking us from Elgin to Stranraer, with more than a few stops along the way, and the young musicians from Big Noise centres across the country performing side-by-side with the Orchestra, continuing our long running partnership with Sistema Scotland.
‘This is going to be a superb Season and I am looking forward to sharing it with audiences.’
MUSIC DIRECTOR THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD SAID: ‘Being back on stage with the RSNO is always a joy, especially in a Season which features so many wonderfully talented musicians and beautiful repertoire from composers past and present. This Season, amongst many pieces, I will be returning to my old favourite, Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, which holds a special place in my heart as the last concert I performed during my studies. And of course, opening the Season with Mahler Seven will be a real highlight for me.’
PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR PATRICK HAHN SAID: ‘The Orchestra have made me feel so welcome over the last year as Principal Guest Conductor and I’m excited to get stuck into rehearsals with these incredible musicians again. I am especially looking forward to my first concert of the Season where I will take a turn on the piano and to the Season Finale as well – it’s going to be a really special Season!’
MUSIC DIRECTOR THOMAS SØNDERGÅRD CONTINUES HIS EPIC MAHLER CYCLE: Music Director Thomas Søndergård opens his eighth Season with a continuation of his Mahler Cycle, performing Mahler’s Symphony No.7 in October. A commemoration of the RSNO Changed Voices’s twentieth anniversary will see Søndergård conducting the world premiere of a specially commissioned work for the choir by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. Søndergård and the RSNO Chorus joins a team of solo singers for further celebration of the voice with works by Clara Schumann and Mozart in November. In the New Year, Søndergård performs alongside a host of sublime soloists: Noah Bendix-Balgley and Bruno Delepelaire join forces for Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello; Felix Klieser returns to perform Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No.1 after two successful concerts in the 2023/24 Season; and rising star Ethan Loch, who performed with the RSNO last Season to much critical acclaim, plays Gershwin’s legendary Rhapsody in Blue in March.
PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR PATRICK HAHN SWAPS PODIUM FOR PIANO: Patrick Hahn returns for his second Season as the RSNO’s Principal Guest Conductor following on from the success of his 2024/25 Season concerts and a highly regarded tour to China over Hogmanay 2024. Hahn will be joined by the Frank Dupree Trio for concert with a twist – swapping the podium for the piano, Hahn will play Antheil’s A Jazz Symphony before Dupree takes over the keys for Gershwin’s Piano Concerto. In the penultimate concert of the Season, Hahn conducts fellow Austrian, Kian Soltani, for Elgar’s Cello Concerto before bringing the 2025/26 Season to a close with a celebration of Scotland with Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill featuring Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides Overture and Sir James MacMillan’s Three Scottish Songs.
ANTHONY PARNTHER JOINS AS FEATURED ARTIST FOR 2025:26 SEASON: Joining the RSNO Artistic Team as Featured Artist in the 2025/26 Season is celebrated conductor and bassoonist Anthony Parnther. Music Director of San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, distinguished conductor of film scores and champion of underrepresented voices, Parnther conducts classical, film and family concerts this Season starting with Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony in a concert which also features the RSNO’s own Principal Timpani Paul Philbert for a brand-new concerto by Matthew Rooke. Spending Halloween with the RSNO, Parnther conducts Fright at the Museum (continuing the RSNO’s partnership with Children’s Classic Concerts) and Ghostbusters in Concert.
CELEBRATING THE SOUNDS AND SIGHTS OF HOME: The 2025/26 Season stars homegrown Scottish talent with the likes of master violinist Nicola Benedetti, pianist Ethan Loch and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill performing works by Elgar, Gershwin and Sir James MacMillan respectively. Keeping Scotland firmly centre stage, soloists from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland join Music Director Thomas Søndergård and mezzo-soprano Katie Coventry for Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges in March and audiences hear Mendelssohn’s tribute to the Isle of Staffa’s basalt sea cave, The Hebrides Overture, in the Season Finale.
Taking a solo spot this Season are several of the RSNO’s own musicians: Principal Timpani Paul Philbert performs Matthew Rooke’s new concerto and Principal Trumpet Christopher Hart plays Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in November. As part of Scottish Bass Trust’s Festival, section principal Nikita Naumov performs Koussevitsky’s Concerto for Double Bass in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s New Auditorium after matinees in Airdrie and Greenock. These concerts form part of the RSNO Comes to Play series which also take the Orchestra and presenter Gillian Moore to Cumnock and Hamilton with conductor Anna Rakitina, and to Haddington and Stirling with Alice Farnham conducting Imogen Holst’s Suite for String Orchestra.
From the aural to the visual, the RSNO is delighted to have commissioned Scottish artist Katie Smith to create the gorgeously colourful series of illustrations for its 2025/26 Season brochure. From Arthur’s Seat to the Calanais Standing Stones, the illustrations capture the familiar faces of the RSNO at home in the Scottish landscape including Leader Maya Iwabuchi and Principal Percussion Simon Lowdon. In a twist to the RSNO’s usual Chamber Concert Series in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s New Auditorium, Ethan Loch: Earth, Wind, Water & Fire is brought to life by Scottish ballet dancer Antonia Cramb giving the audiences and musicians alike a new perspective on the influence of music.
COMMITTED TO NEW WORKS AND CONTEMPORARY VOICES: The RSNO is committed to commissioning new works. This Season is no different, boasting several World and UK Premieres including Matthew Rooke’s Tamboo Bamboo Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra, Elena Langer’s New Work for Soprano and Orchestra (sung by Anna Dennis) and Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s New Work for Changed Voices. Co-commissioned by the RSNO and National Symphony Orchestra Washington, James Ehnes performs the UK Premiere of Hollywood legend James Newton Howard’s Second Violin Concerto.
Continuing the RSNO’s long tradition of amplifying the voices of living composers, Jörg Widmann returns to the RSNO to conduct his own Con brio as well as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto played by the inimitable Veronika Eberle. The RSNO Chamber Series, in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s New Auditorium, sees the RSNO Youth Chorus sing James Burton’s The Lost Words and young Scottish pianist Ethan Loch perform the world premiere of his own composition, Fantasy of the Sea. Azerbaijani composer and pianist Franghiz Ali-Zadeh’s musical fairy tale, Nagillar, is billed alongside violinist Nicola Benedetti and conductor Kirill Karabits in May. In a stand-alone special, renowned singer Abi Sampa takes to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall stage alongside the RSNO for Orchestral Qawwali Project in April. Devised by Rushil Ranjan and Sampa herself, this one-of-a-kind concert blends Western classical music, South Asian music and Indian classical dance.
RED CARPET ROLLED OUT WITH RSNO AT THE MOVIES: Back by popular demand, the RSNO continues its Star Wars cycle with The Empire Strikes Back in Concert. The RSNO rolls out the red carpet for an array of films with live orchestra featuring returning favourite, Home Alone, and newcomers, Ghostbusters, How to Train your Dragon and Gladiator. Drawing the movie season to a close, the RSNO’s annual celebration of the Music of John Williams returns to the stage in May 2026 with music from films such as Superman, Harry Potter and E.T.