Highlights of the 2026/27 Season: A Glimpse into First-Time SLSO Performances

By Maddie Hurst

Each season, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra introduces audiences to music that expands its repertoire and creates new listening experiences. During the 2026/27 season, SLSO musicians will perform more than three dozen pieces for the first time, ranging from world premieres and chamber music pieces to concertos to live-to-picture film scores and orchestral works by internationally celebrated composers.

The SLSO remains steadfast in its commitment to programming music by composers of today, a value that is central to the institution’s artistic identity. Across its 2026/27 season, including the Live at the Pulitzer and Live at the Sheldon chamber music series, classical concerts, and special presentations, more than 40 percent of the music performed will be by living composers, reflecting the orchestra’s priority of bringing never-before-performed works to St. Louis audiences.

Here are just a few of this season’s first-time performances.

Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska makes her SLSO debut leading the orchestra’s first performance of Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, featuring soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou, also making her SLSO debut.

Composed in 1964, Folk Songs draws on traditional melodies from the United States, Armenia, France, Italy, Sardinia, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere to explore a wide range of cultural influences and storytelling. This song cycle is comprised of 11 songs, each reflecting a country and elements of its culture. Berio is known for a more avant-garde approach to orchestral music, but his Folk Songs takes a different tack and is one of his most lyrical works. He created the cycle for the American vocalist Cathy Berberian, who would become his wife.

The SLSO joins a select group of orchestras to present Edward Scissorhands in Concert for the first time in a symphonic setting, performing Danny Elfman’s beloved score live while the film unfolds on the big screen. Conducted by Larry Loh, the performance follows Edward, the gentle outsider with scissors for hands, as he navigates love, friendship, and the bittersweet challenges of fitting in.

Director Tim Burton envisioned the music in the film as another character, conveying emotions, thoughts, and dialogue…when there isn’t much from Edward himself. Ethereal and enchanting, the film’s music is imperative to the audience’s journey of understanding and feeling with Edward. One of the score’s most memorable moments, “Ice Dance,” has become one of Elfman’s signature concert works and is frequently performed by orchestras around the world.

Composer Kris Bowers’ For a Younger Self receives its first SLSO performance, featuring violinist Charles Yang and conducted by Paolo Bortolameolli. Known for his music in The Color Purple, King Richard, and Bridgerton, as well as for directing an Academy Award-winning short film, The Last Repair Shop, this is Bowers’ first work for a concert setting. The piece was inspired by feelings of fear and uncertainty when he and Yang moved to New York City to attend The Julliard School. Bowers’ said, “For a Younger Self is an effort to encapsulate the essence of a young hero’s journey—one where the protagonist, embodied by Charles and his violin, embarks upon the adventure of self-discovery amidst the challenges of young life in an unfamiliar space” (Orchid Classics).

For a Younger Self will be played alongside pieces by Miguel Farías and Sergei Rachmaninoff. 

The SLSO brings music by French composer Mel Bonis to the Powell Hall stage for the first time in the institution’s history. In a program uplifting legendary women, conductor Anja Bihlmaier makes her SLSO debut leading the orchestra in Bonis’ Salomé from Trois femmes de légende (Three Women of Legend).

During Bonis’ adolescence, women were not encouraged to pursue musical careers and were prohibited from publishing music. Bonis fought against and defied the system, going on to compose more than 300 pieces, celebrating other legendary women and solidifying her place as one herself. Through Three Women of Legend, she tells the stories of iconic female figures from literature and mythology.

The SLSO and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra come together for the St. Louis premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony No. 5, “Liberty,” an SLSO co-commission. “Liberty” was composed for both the symphonic orchestra and the jazz band, facilitating a beautiful marriage between the two genres of music. The SLSO has a long-standing relationship with Marsalis and has previously recorded and released his Swing Symphony in 2019 — an upbeat jazz symphony highlighting American values.

This March performance, led by conductor Teddy Abrams in his SLSO debut, commemorates Marsalis’ final season as Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, marking nearly four decades of artistic leadership.

Music Director Stéphane Denève leads the world premiere of Christopher Stark’s violin concerto “Vesper Flights”, written for SLSO Associate Concertmaster Erin Schreiber. This piece was inspired by the remarkable flights that swifts take at dusk and dawn, ascending to a height of 6,000 feet, where they disappear into the clouds and the darkness and can no longer be seen. The word “vesper” means evening —hearkening back to the inspiration for the piece and the journey of the birds. Both Stark and Schreiber find a muse in nature —Stark drawing from his home state Montana’s landscapes and Schreiber from her fascination of birds and passion for outdoor photography. A longtime SLSO collaborator and curator for the Live at The Pulitzer concert series, Stark teaches composition at Washington University in St. Louis.

The season also includes the SLSO’s first performance of a National Geographic documentary in concert and the first film score composed by a woman. French composer Raphaelle Thibaut’s music accompanies Secrets of the Whales, an acclaimed series that explores the intelligence, communication, and family bonds of whale species around the globe.

Thibaut has had a unique career as a composer; attending conservatory for music, she left that world to pursue marketing at Google. However, after a transformational experience at Abbey Road Studios, she left Google to return to music, specifically, composing. Thibaut was only supposed to score one episode of Secrets of the Whales, but her composition skills landed her composer credits on the entire Emmy-winning film series.

Thibaut encourages viewers to watch out for the “Summer Spectacle” scene in which sperm whales have a family reunion and are seen dancing out of the water.

The SLSO’s 147th season was intentionally curated with audiences of all ages, interests, and musical backgrounds in mind. These first-time additions to the orchestra’s repertoire represent just one facet of a season designed to inspire curiosity, spark discovery, and connect listeners with music in new ways.

To explore the full 2026/27 season and learn more about upcoming performances, visit our event calendar below:

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Event Calendar.

Maddie Hurst is the Summer 2026 SLSO Communications and Public Relations Intern.