Three artists playing a violins and a tuba, against a pink background.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Founded in 1932 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra of world standing and one of the leading orchestras in the Asia-Pacific region. The Sydney Symphony performs approximately 150 concerts each year to an annual audience of more than 350,000. The Orchestra not only performs core symphonic repertoire but engages in collaborations with other art forms and commissions new works by Australian and international composers to ensure the vibrancy of orchestral music for generations to come.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra 2026 Season

One musician is capable of so much. But an orchestra – with 80, 90, 100 musicians striving and urging and pushing as one – sounds like so much more. It sounds like power. Like inspiration. It is a sound that surrounds you, lifts you and stays with you.

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Three artists playing a violins and a tuba, against a pink background.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra 2027 Season

The magic of music is that it sounds like something different to every person in the Concert Hall. It affects each of us differently, unexpectedly, unmistakably. To us, it sounds like discovery. In our 95th year, Chief Conductor Simone Young leads the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the world's finest guest soloists and conductors in a Season full of music that will inspire, console, invigorate and delight you, sometimes all at once.

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A woman playing the cello coloured red against a green background.
Simone Young looking to the side, standing inside the Sydney Opera House.

A Welcome to the 2027 Season from Sydney Symphony Chief Conductor Simone Young

What does the Sydney Symphony Orchestra sound like? It’s a question I get asked a lot as I travel the world.

To me, it sounds like fearless music-making and thrilling discoveries, like time-honoured tradition and inspired masterpieces, like old friends. It sounds like home.

But the beauty of classical music is that it sounds like something different to every person in the concert hall. The same piece of music can bring someone to their feet and their neighbour to their knees. That is what keeps us going back, night after night: in a world full of curated feeds and personalised devices, live classical music is one of the few things with the capacity to completely surprise us.

Mahler once said that the symphony must be like the world and contain everything, and in that spirit, I welcome you to our 2027 Season – a Season that sounds like the whole world, in all its complexity, beauty, mystery and wonder.

How else would we begin but with a Mahler symphony? His Seventh is a work of fascinating complexity that will show off this Orchestra’s tremendous skill. And with our Ring Cycle now concluded, our Opera in Concert shifts to my other great love, Richard Strauss, and his Salome: an opera I have conducted countless times around the world which I am excited to finally present in Sydney. We celebrate the enduring power of the music of Beethoven, 200 years after his death, with a festival of his symphonies as well as performances of lesser-known masterpieces including the Romances and his Missa Solemnis.

We welcome some of the world’s greatest soloists, including Gautier Capuçon, Víkingur Ólafsson, Kirill Gerstein, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Xavier de Maistre, James Ehnes and Jean-Guihen Queyras and esteemed conducting colleagues including our Principal Guest Conductor Sir Donald Runnicles and Conductor in Residence Benjamin Northey, as well as Douglas Boyd, Pietari Inkinen, Eva Ollikainen and Dalia Stasevska.

We will hear from some of the great living composers, with exciting premieres by John Adams, Thomas Adès, Ross Edwards, Jens Joneleit, Lauri Porra, Harry Sdraulig, Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Alex Turley.

We shine a light on the wonderful musicians within our own Orchestra, with Andrew Haveron, Harry Bennetts, Emma Sholl, Richard Waters, Shefali Pryor, Olli Leppäniemi, Todd Gibson-Cornish and Samuel Jacobs all featured as soloists.

And in our 95th year, our connection to this city, this state and nation is stronger than ever before, with an increased number of regional performances, deeper engagement with First Nations communities and the continued expansion of our Learning & Engagement programs.

I hope you will join us for a season of thrilling music-making with this wonderful orchestra.

Simone Young AM
Chief Conductor
Sydney Symphony Orchestra