The 47th season of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA highlights American composers and presents exceptional guest artists

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA, which for 47 years has enriched the cultural life of the greater Southwest Washington area with music of the highest caliber, announced its 2025-26 season programming on Monday morning.

The season will feature a dazzling array of top-tier soloists that include Marc-André Hamelin, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Inés Issel Burzyńska, playing some of the greatest classical works under Maestro Salvador Brotons, VSO’s Music Director and Conductor. Spotlighting music by John Adams, Carlos Simon and Mason Bates throughout the season, nearly every program will highlight the artistry of some of the great American composers of our time.

“We’re proud to present this breathtaking series of concerts featuring world-class soloists and influential composers who are shaping America’s classical voice,” said Igor Shakhman, VSO’s Chief Executive Officer. “It’s an exciting time for our city and being able to share music in a community where the arts thrive.”

Piano soloists Marc-André Hamelin and Anne-Marie McDermott will perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1, respectively. Spanish violinist Inés Issel Burzyńska, one of the most talented instrumentalists of her generation, joins the VSO for Prokofiev’s stellar Violin Concerto No. 2. The season’s chamber music programs include performances by cellist Zuill Bailey, and pianists Awadagin Pratt and Orli Shaham, among others.

In advance of next year’s celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the orchestra will herald America’s rich cultural heritage by performing music by John Adams, Carlos Simon, and Mason Bates. The Chairman Dances, by Adams, is a “foxtrot for orchestra,” which the composer has described as an outtake from his groundbreaking opera Nixon in China, one of the first to dramatize events from recent American history. The orchestral showpiece melds American minimalism, stylized jazz inflections, and colorful orchestration, all held together by Adams’s signature chugging rhythms. 

Simon’s imaginative music blends influences from jazz, gospel, and neo-Romanticism. The VSO will perform his Four Black American Dances, an orchestral study of the music associated with the Ring Shout, the Waltz, Tap Dance and the Holy Dance, which together represent the wide range of cultural and social variety within Black American communities. Bates’s Mothership, on the other hand, follows the form of a traditional scherzo and trio but draws from techno and other 21st-century dance music, allowing for improvisation in the brief solos. The work is pulsating and lyrical, and a unique expression of contemporary American music.

The 47th season of the VSO also includes music by Aaron Copland, Richard Strauss, and other important composers from the 20th century. Brotons returns for his 35th consecutive season to lead the orchestra through Mahler’s Symphony No.1, Orff’s Carmina Burana featuring the Portland Symphonic Choir in celebration of its 80th season, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” among other timeless masterworks. The season also includes Back to the Movies, a series of three screenings of classic films with a period-authentic live score compiled by pianist and arranger Rodney Sauer and performed by the VSO Chamber Music Ensemble. Back to the Movies performances take place at Kiggins Theatre.

Each symphonic program, conducted by Brotons, will be performed twice at Skyview Concert Hall, with Saturday concerts at 7 p.m. PT and Sunday concerts at 3 p.m. PT. Live streams air concurrently, with special stream-exclusive live video programming before the concert. Please visit vancouversymphony.org or call the VSO office at (360) 735-7278 for more information and full season details.

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA: 2025-26 Season

— Carmina Burana —

Saturday, September 27 | 7 pm 
Sunday, September 28 | 3 pm              

• Mascagni: Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana
• Mascagni: Intermezzo from L’amico Fritz 
• Mascagni: Intermezzo from Guglielmo Ratcliff 
• Mascagni: Intermezzo from Isabeau 
• Mascagni: Inno al sole from Iris*
• C. Orff: Carmina Burana*

*Portland Symphonic Choir

— Rhapsody in Blue —

Saturday, November 1 | 7 pm 
Sunday, November 2 | 3 pm 

• Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

Marc André Hamelin, piano 

• Mahler: Symphony No. 1

— VSO Holiday Pops with Liz Callaway —

Saturday, December 13 | 7 pm 
Sunday, December 14 | 3 pm 

Liz Callaway, soloist

— Young Artist Showcase —  

Saturday, January 17, 2026 | 7 pm 
Sunday, January 18, 2026 | 3 pm 

• Bates: Mothership 
• Young Artist Competition Winners 
• Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite 
• Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks 

— A Celebration of Americana —  

Saturday, February 21, 2026 | 7 pm 
Sunday, February 22, 2026 | 3 pm 

• Simon: Four Black American Dances 
• Copland: Rodeo 
• Copland: Appalachian Spring 
• Gershwin: Porgy and Bess 

— Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 — 

Saturday, April 11, 2026 | 7 pm 
Sunday, April 12, 2026 | 3 pm 

• Buetti: Carlos – El Chihuahua Magnifico 
• Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.1

Anne-Marie McDermott, piano 

• Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

— Dvořák’s New World Symphony — 

Saturday, May 30, 2026 | 7 pm 
Sunday, May 31, 2026 | 3 pm 

• Adams: The Chairman Dances 
• Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2

Inés Issel Burzyńska, violin

• Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 

Chamber Music Series 

— Piano Extravaganza — 

Sunday, October 19, 2026 | 3 pm 

First Presbyterian Church 

—Back to the Movies: Go West (1925)— 

Thursday, November 20, 2025 | 7 pm 

Kiggins Theatre 

—Back to the Movies: Man with a Movie Camera (1929)— 

Thursday, January 22, 2026 | 7 pm 

Kiggins Theatre 

—The Love of Music with VSO Winds and Brass— 

Friday, February 6, 2026 | 7 pm 

First Presbyterian Church

—VSO Chamber Music with Zuill Bailey and Awadagin Pratt— 

Sunday, March 15, 2026 | 3 pm 

First Presbyterian Church 

— Back to the Movies: Show People (1929)— 

Thursday, April 23, 2026| 7 pm 

Kiggins Theatre 

— VSO Chamber Orchestra with Orli Shaham — 

Sunday, May 3 | 3 pm 

First Presbyterian Church