Gustavo Dudamel and The New York Philharmonic Unveil 2025–26 Season

In the 2025–26 season Gustavo Dudamel will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct six weeks of subscription concerts comprising repertoire ranging from classical cornerstones to World Premieres, as well as the Spring Gala. The programming in his season as Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music & Artistic Director Designate — before he becomes Music & Artistic Director in September 2026 — includes a reflection on the United States during the nation’s 250th anniversary year; a partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a large-scale commissioning project in his valedictory season with that ensemble; and collaborations with distinguished soloists and a vibrant New York City ensemble.

2025–26 Season Opening Concerts

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the New York Philharmonic in back-to-back subscription programs, September 11–21, 2025, that open the Orchestra’s 2025–26 season. The concerts offer both a preview of the season ahead and of the forthcoming Dudamel era.

On September 11–13 and 16, 2025, Dudamel conducts works by composers who inhabit the American identity in a variety of ways. The concerts open with the World Premiere of Leilehua Lanzilotti’s of light and stone, a New York Philharmonic commission. These concerts mark the first orchestral performances of the Kānaka Maoli composer’s work by the NY Phil; her On Stochastic Wave Behavior was featured on a Kravis Nightcap concert in October 2022. The program also includes Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3, written when the composer was a refugee living in New York City, featuring Yunchan Lim — the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — and the Symphony No. 2 by New Englander Charles Ives.

On September 18–21, 2025, Dudamel leads symphonies composed more than 180 years apart: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (which appeared on the Orchestra’s inaugural concert in 1842) and John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1 (which the NY Phil performed in 1992, in the work’s New York Premiere).

Spring Programs

Highlights and updates to the concerts that the Music & Artistic Director Designate will conduct in March through May 2026 include:

The World Premiere of a newly commissioned arrangement by 18 composers of Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated, alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Eroica, March 12–14 and 17, 2026.

The World Premiere of David Lang’s oratorio the wealth of nations, commissioned by the NY Phil, March 19–22, 2026.

The Spring Gala, April 28, 2026. The repertoire has changed: Rimsky-Korsakov’s Piano Concerto will be replaced by a Shostakovich Jazz Suite. The rest of the program remains as announced, including Scriabin’s Piano Concerto, featuring Evgeny Kissin.

The New York Premiere of Ellen Reid’s Earth Between Oceans, co-commissioned with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Bloch’s Schelomo featuring The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Sheku Kanneh-Mason, April 30–May 2, 2026.