Photos: New York Philharmonic to Tour Europe with Gustavo Dudamel, Oct. 9-22, 2026
The tour marks the orchestra's first European visit in nearly a decade and its return to France and Spain.
Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic will embark on a European tour from October 9 to 22, 2026, giving ten concerts in six cities: Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna. The tour marks the Orchestra's return to Europe after nearly a decade, following its last visit in 2017, as well as its return to France and Spain, where it has not performed in almost 15 years.
Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. Throughout its history, it has been led by such illustrious figures as Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein, and has given the World Premieres of works that have become staples of the repertoire, including Dvořák's New World Symphony and Gershwin's Concerto in F.
In September 2026 Gustavo Dudamel will officially begin his tenure as the Orchestra's Tang Music & Artistic Director. To inaugurate his tenure, he will conduct two series of concerts in New York, each featuring a World Premiere: Tania León's Imágenes mestizas will be paired with Mahler's Fifth Symphony, while Zosha Di Castri's Invisible House will be presented alongside John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls and Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.
In October Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic will embark on a European tour featuring these same two programs.
A Few Words From Gustavo Dudamel
'To bring the New York Philharmonic to Europe for my first tour as its Music & Artistic Director is deeply meaningful to me. These cities and concert halls are places where so much of the music we perform was created, imagined, and transformed. Sharing that lineage with an orchestra whose own history is so closely connected to it is a profound privilege. The New York Philharmonic has long been shaped by the great European musical tradition while developing its own distinctive voice across nearly two centuries. This tour is an opportunity to bring an orchestra forged by the extraordinary energy and diversity of New York into some of the spaces that have shaped the music we love.
The repertoire is central to that journey. Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony was the first work I conducted with the New York Philharmonic, and returning to it now, at the beginning of this new chapter, feels like a beautiful full-circle moment. Mahler, too, speaks to the deep connections between this orchestra and the cities we will visit. We begin in Paris, where the Philharmonic made its international debut with Arturo Toscanini in 1930, and continue to Berlin, where Leonard Bernstein led the orchestra in Mahler's Fifth Symphony during its first performances at the Philharmonie. These moments are part of a much longer history that connects the New York Philharmonic to the musical life of these cities. Performing this music in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna gives us the opportunity to experience these works in the cities that helped shape the musical traditions from which they emerged, while also bringing the distinctive voice of the New York Philharmonic to each of them.'
About the New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic plays a leading cultural role in New York City and around the world. Each season the Orchestra connects with millions of music lovers through live concerts in New York and beyond, as well as broadcasts, recordings, and education programs.
Since its founding, the Philharmonic has commissioned and premiered numerous major works, including Dvořák's New World Symphony and Gershwin's Concerto in F, as well as two Pulitzer Prize winners: John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls — which will be reprised to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 — and Tania León's Stride, commissioned through Project 19, the largest all-women commissioning initiative in history.
The Orchestra has released more than 2,000 recordings since 1917.
Based at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, the New York Philharmonic has appeared in 437 cities in 63 countries.
Among the illustrious figures who have conducted the Orchestra are Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland.
In taking the helm of the Orchestra, Gustavo Dudamel follows in the footsteps of such illustrious Music Directors as Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, and Lorin Maazel, all of whom have shaped the history of this Orchestra and, more broadly, the history of music.
About Gustavo Dudamel
Gustavo Dudamel is one of the most influential cultural figures of our time. He has devoted his life to music's power to unite and to the belief that art is not merely entertainment, but a force for compassion, dignity, and transformation. Combining artistic excellence with unwavering optimism, he has helped redefine the role of the conductor in society and broaden the reach of classical music, from underserved communities in Venezuela to the world's leading cultural capitals.
Raised from childhood through El Sistema, the revolutionary music education program founded in Venezuela by José Antonio Abreu, Dudamel remains one of the most passionate advocates for arts education and social transformation through music. This commitment is expressed notably through the Dudamel Foundation, which he co-chairs with actress and filmmaker María Valverde, and YOLA — Youth Orchestra Los Angeles.
Following 17 transformative years as Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, during which he helped redefine what a modern orchestra could be, and having served as Music Director of the Paris Opera from 2021 to 2023, he will begin his tenure as Music & Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2026. He also continues to serve as Music & Artistic Director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.
His influence extends far beyond the world of classical music. He has appeared at major international events, including the Academy Awards, the Super Bowl, the FIFA World Cup Final, and the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and has collaborated with artists including Coldplay, Billie Eilish, Cynthia Erivo, and Nas. The recipient of nine Grammy Awards, he has also been named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.
Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic — The 2026–27 Season
Gustavo Dudamel made his New York Philharmonic debut in November 2007, at the age of 26, in a program that included Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony — a work he will revisit with the Orchestra on this European tour. In February 2023 the Philharmonic announced that Dudamel would become Music & Artistic Director in September 2026, making him the 27th conductor to hold the position since the Orchestra's founding.
His inaugural season will usher in a dynamic new era of artistic growth, groundbreaking collaboration, forward-thinking programming, and deep community engagement. Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic will appear at home in David Geffen Hall, as well as at iconic New York City venues including Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall — launching a five-year partnership with the latter.
The season will bring together prestigious soloists including Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Mitsuko Uchida, Hilary Hahn, Maxim Vengerov, Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Leif Ove Andsnes, Víkingur Ólafsson, and Beatrice Rana, as well as singers Marina Rebeka, Jonas Kaufmann, and Ludovic Tézier. Leading guest conductors appearing with the Orchestra will include Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Semyon Bychkov, Iván Fischer, Daniel Harding, Jakub Hrůša, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and Joana Mallwitz.
The season will feature a multiweek spotlight on Beethoven, the Orchestra's first complete performances of Bernstein's MASS, and premieres by Zosha Di Castri, Tania León, Gonzalo Grau, and Gustavo Santaolalla. Dudamel will also collaborate with performance artist Marina Abramović and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, The Mary and James G. Wallach Artists-in-Residence, reflecting his commitment to bringing symphonic music into dialogue with other forms of contemporary artistic expression.
This season follows the July 2026 performance in which musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, led by Dudamel, appeared alongside a range of popular artists in the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show, presaging the global, genre-spanning scope of the Philharmonic in the Gustavo Dudamel era.
Europe 2026 Tour Programs
PROGRAM 1
Tania León — Imágenes mestizas, European Premiere
Gustav Mahler — Symphony No. 5
PROGRAM 2
John Adams — On the Transmigration of Souls
Zosha Di Castri — Invisible House, European Premiere
Sergei Prokofiev — Symphony No. 5
European Tour Schedule, October 9–22, 2026
Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Paris, Philharmonie de Paris — Program 1
Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Paris, Philharmonie de Paris — Program 2
Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Barcelona, L'Auditori — Program 2
Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. — Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Música — Program 2
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. — Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Música — Program 1
Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie — Program 1
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie — Program 1
Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, at 8 p.m. — Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie — Program 2
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. — Vienna, Musikverein — Program 1
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. — Vienna, Musikverein — Program 2
Two European Premieres at the Heart of the Tour
Tania León — Imágenes mestizas
A major figure in American contemporary music, composer and conductor Tania León has spent more than 50 years developing a body of work shaped by the plurality of her cultural identities. Born in Havana and based in New York since 1967, she brings the rhythms and colors of her Cuban heritage into dialogue with European orchestral traditions and the most contemporary forms of American musical creation. In 2021 her work Stride was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music. The title of her new work, Imágenes mestizas — which might be translated as 'mixed images' — evokes the meeting and interweaving of cultures that lie at the heart of both her personal journey and her artistic identity. By pairing it with Mahler's Fifth Symphony, Gustavo Dudamel brings together two works which, although composed more than a century apart, each reflect a world shaped by diverse heritages and the circulation of influences.
Zosha Di Castri — Invisible House
A Canadian composer, pianist, and sound artist based in New York, Zosha Di Castri has established herself as one of the most distinctive voices of her generation. Her work explores the relationships among instrumental music, technology, the sonic environment, and the perception of space. Her compositions, which have been performed by ensembles including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, combine the power of orchestral writing with a highly refined exploration of timbre and texture. The title of her new work, Invisible House, echoes themes that recur throughout her music: memory, space, the traces left by places, and the sometimes imperceptible connections between individuals and their environment. Co-commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the work will receive its World Premiere in New York under Gustavo Dudamel before receiving its European Premiere on the tour.
