2026-27 SEASON

Monday, September 21
Case Scaglione, guest conductor 
Diamond Rounds
Prokofiev Symphony No. 1, “Classical”
Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello

The MMSO welcomes Case Scaglione to the podium for the very first time. The former Associate Conductor of the New York Philharmonic arrives with two of the most compelling soloists of their generation. Violinist Stefan Jackiw, newly appointed to the faculty of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and praised by the Boston Globe for playing of "uncommon musical substance," joins McDuffie Center faculty cellist Brannon Cho, First Prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition, for Brahms' Double Concerto. The program opens with Diamond's Rounds, a jubilant American classic composed during World War II after a conductor simply asked him to "make me happy," and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, nicknamed the "Classical," a piece so witty and light on its feet it sounds like Mozart reborn with a mischievous grin. SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE SOON

Monday, November 16
Joseph Young, guest conductor
Barber Adagio for Strings
Strauss Don Juan
Mozart Symphony No. 31, “Paris”

Barber's Adagio for Strings has a rare ability to make the world outside the concert hall fall away. Few orchestral works carry as much emotional weight, and its presence at so many significant moments of the past century has only deepened its resonance. Hearing it live adds yet another dimension to a piece that rewards every encounter. Conductor Joseph Young opens the evening with Strauss's Don Juan, a blazing, restless, and vividly theatrical work, surging with youthful energy and bold orchestral color, that announced Strauss as a major voice when he was just 24. The program closes with Mozart's Paris Symphony, whose clarity and grace serve as a reminder of why his music has endured for 250 years. SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE SOON

Monday, March 1
Mei Ann Chen, guest conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 9

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is in a category of its own. Conductor Mei-Ann Chen leads the MMSO, the Mercer Singers, and Townsend School of Music faculty and alumni in a work that begins in mystery and shadow and builds, over the course of an hour, to the "Ode to Joy," a melody so embedded in the collective memory that the moment the chorus enters, the entire room recognizes it at once. That shared recognition, felt together in a live concert hall, is something recordings simply cannot replicate.  SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE SOON

Monday, April 5
Yaniv Segal, conductor
Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Concerto Competition Winner
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique”

The season closes with a program that moves from a dream to a reckoning. Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun marks the moment when the modern era in classical music truly began. At the heart of the program, a young soloist selected from the MMSO's February 2027 Concerto Competition steps into the spotlight for a full orchestral debut, one of the most genuinely exciting moments of every season. The evening closes with Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, known as the "Pathetique," the last work he ever completed. It is raw and searching, and it ends not in triumph but in a long, aching quiet that audiences have found unforgettable for over a hundred years. SINGLE TICKETS ON SALE SOON