It’s hard to believe, for all the hubbub around Klaus Mäkelä’s hiring as the 11th music director of the Chicago Symphony, that next season will mark just the halfway point between his tenure and Riccardo Muti’s.
The orchestra’s 2025-26 season, announced Wednesday, at least reflects the passing of the baton far better than the current. Mäkelä and Muti, now the orchestra’s music director emeritus, both lead four engagements with the CSO. Each gets a domestic tour with the orchestra, too — Muti on a seven-city Arizona and California tour, Mäkelä covering four stops in the Midwest and East Coast, including his first Carnegie Hall appearance with the CSO on Feb. 25, 2026.
This still being an interim year between the maestri, the 2025-26 season has few unifying features or trends. (As ever, SCP Jazz, MusicNOW, world music and other programming will be announced at a later date.) Some arise out of circumstance: We see a decent scoop of Ravel, catching the end of his 150th birthday year, and much more American music than usual, thanks to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Calling all singers
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is the CSO’s next artist-in-residence, for another single-year appointment. She begins her residency with a Symphony Ball Strauss medley (Sept. 20). Following it is an Emily Dickinson-inspired song cycle by Kevin Puts, featuring pop-classical trio Time for Three (Feb. 10, 2026). DiDonato concludes her residency in the spring by singing Peter Lieberson’s “Neruda Songs” with conductor Edward Gardner (May 7-9, 2026).
Missing former artists-in-residence Daniil Trifonov and Hilary Hahn? They’ll both be back next season, Trifonov playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 2026) and Hahn in a to-be-announced recital program (May 24, 2026).
Viola!
The middle child of the string section gets two serious spotlights in the 2025-26 season. Opening night features CSO principal violist Teng Li and conductor-violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider in Mozart’s collegial Sinfonia concertante (Sept. 18-19). A month later, violist Antoine Tamestit solos on an all-Berlioz program: “Harold in Italy” and “Symphonie fantastique,” both conducted by music director designate Klaus Mäkelä (Oct. 16-18).
More Mäkelä
The Berlioz bash is the first of Mäkelä’s appearances with the orchestra next season. It’s followed by a program of Beethoven 7, music by Unsuk Chin and Jörg Widmann, and Schumann’s Piano Concerto; Yunchan Lim, the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn competition and a frequent Mäkelä collaborator, solos (Dec. 18-20). Before that, Lim opens the CSO’s piano series with contrasting variations by Webern and Bach (Oct. 19).
Mäkelä’s next program, which he takes to Carnegie Hall, features Sibelius’s “Lemminkäinen” and Richard Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben” (Feb. 19-21, 2026). That’s followed by an engagement that includes not only “The Rite of Spring” but Darius Milhaud’s “Le Bœuf sur le toit” and Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” (March 5-6, 2026). Mäkelä will also lead two programs at the 2026 Ravinia Festival, dates to be announced.
Muti gets retrospective
Muti’s 2025-26 repertoire walks down memory lane. As in, to 2018, when he last conducted Paul Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler” symphony and Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony No. 9 (Oct. 30-Nov. 1), or broadly to his long career as a Verdian, in an operatic medley concert with soprano Lidia Fridman, tenor Francesco Meli and the Chicago Symphony Chorus (March 19-21, 2026).
But this season, Muti is also looking much, much further back. One of his earliest recordings comes from a 1968 live performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. He revisits the piece with soloist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, who last played it at Orchestra Hall in 2019 (Nov. 6-8).
An even deeper cut? Muti’s tribute to Nino Rota, the composer behind the “Godfather” soundtrack and Muti’s one-time music teacher in Naples, Italy (March 26-29, 2026). Muti conducts a suite from the film as well as selections from Rota’s score for the 1963 Luchino Visconti film “Il Gattopardo.”
The unmissables
In more bad news for new music at Symphony Center, the CSO hosts just one premiere in the 2025-26 season, Matthew Aucoin’s “Song of the Reappeared” (Dec. 4-7). At least the piece has the right ingredients. Not only is Aucoin a familiar talent — he was a former CSO Solti Conducting Apprentice and commissioned composer for Lyric Opera’s Unlimited program — but it features the adventurous soprano Julia Bullock in her CSO subscription debut.
Also just one touring orchestra this season: Mexico City’s Sinfónica de Minería, conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto and featuring trumpeter Pacho Flores (Jan. 18).
Of the many tributes across CSO subscription and recital programs to Ravel’s 150th year, Alice Sara Ott devises the most epic: both piano concertos in a doubleheader (Sept. 25-28). Mikko Franck conducts.
In the spirit of its recent Joffrey collaborations, the CSO teams up with Goodman Theatre for a semi-staged “Soldier’s Tale” at Orchestra Hall (Oct. 23-25). The all-Stravinsky program also includes the orchestra’s first-ever performances of Stravinsky’s Septet and, aptly enough, his “Fanfare for a New Theatre.”
It’s been a while since a young prodigy performed with the CSO on a mainstage program. Himari Yoshimura — already performing mononymically, as Himari — changes that next season, playing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under Jaap van Zweden (Feb. 12-15, 2026). She’ll be a wizened 14 by the time she takes the Orchestra Hall stage.
Accordion concertos? Yes, they exist. “Prophecy,” a 2007 piece by Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür, is among them; soloist Ksenija Sidorova takes it on alongside the CSO and conductor Paavo Järvi (April 2-4, 2026).
Lately, phenom pianist Yuja Wang has tried her hands at leading from the keyboard. Her double-duty show in Chicago with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra makes no small plans: the program opens with Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and ends with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (April 29, 2026).
Someone else balancing violin and conducting, albeit with more venturesome taste than Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider: Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto. (To wit: he last appeared with the CSO in a concerto by The National guitarist Bryce Dessner.) He guides the orchestra through a program that ricochets from Haydn to Anna Clyne, with Nordic detours (May 21-23, 2026).
The Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn has long been a South Side home for the CSO. Orchestra Hall returns the favor next season, inviting the Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir to sing spirituals on a program with conductor James Gaffigan (June 11-13, 2026). Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet solos in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety,” as part of the same program.
From your screen to Symphony Center
Another notable trend: YouTube stars getting a CSO spotlight. TwoSet Violin, the project of comedian-violinists Eddy Chen and Brett Yang, announced last year that it would sunset its irreverent, wildly popular channel. The duo’s live show at Symphony Center (Oct. 14) might be goodbye for good. In contrast, Hayato Sumino is no laughing matter: the Japanese pianist might have made his fame on YouTube under the name “Cateen,” but he’s as serious an artist as they come. His Orchestra Hall recital weaves his own compositions between Bach and Chopin (Nov. 17).
The silver screen is represented, too: Following a sold-out run at Symphony Center last June, Studio Ghibli composer and pianist Joe Hisaishi returns to play and conduct the CSO in a program of his works (April 23-26, 2026).
A fun extra: the conductor Joshua Weilerstein, tying up next season’s subscription programs, is the host of “Sticky Notes,” a podcast exploring a piece in the classical music canon every two weeks. His mainstage debut is a very American program that includes former CSO composer-in-residence Jessie Montgomery’s “Banner” and Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait,” narrator to be announced (June 18-21, 2026).
Back by popular demand
Following his thrilling turn in a 2022 MusicNOW program, Chicago-born cellist Gabriel Cabezas returns on a subscription program for Gabriella Smith’s “Lost Coast” with Esa-Pekka Salonen (Feb. 5-7, 2026).
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra makes its annual return, first in a SCP Jazz appearance (June 2, 2026) then again with conductor Marin Alsop and the CSO (June 4-6, 2026). Two co-commissioned pieces light up the latter: Symphony No. 5, “Liberty,” by JLCO director Wynton Marsalis, and “The Rock You Stand On” by John Adams.
Conrad Tao’s stunning 2023 subscription debut, playing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, has been a highlight of the CSO’s post-shutdown seasons. The Urbana, Illinois, native returns to play Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with conductor Karina Canellakis (April 30-May 3, 2026). Tao returns a month later for a recital bridging classical and jazz traditions — think Schoenberg, Strayhorn, and, yes, heaps and heaps of Gershwin (June 7).
The trumpet shall sound…
On the subject of newsworthy returns, CSO principal trumpet Esteban Batallán resumes his post in 2025-26 after a year away at the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In an email interview, Batallán said that the reasons for his return were both professional and personal.
“It was not a decision made out of the blue, or an ‘easy’ decision. I already have been a tenured member of the Philadelphia Orchestra since January, so it is not a return by the back door,” Batallán wrote. “It has a deeper meaning, something that is above me, and probably could be called a ‘dream,’ a ‘passion,’ or both.”
Batallán extended his gratitude to Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, former and current CEOs Matías Tarnopolsky and Ryan Fleur, and his colleagues in the trumpet and trombone sections.
“We had a lot of wonderful performances,” he continued. “There was a phrase from my esteemed colleague, associate principal trumpet Jeff Curnow, who made me remember what my whole life I was dreaming about. He shared his opinion about the time when he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra, and said, ‘It was what I was looking for all my career as a professional player; it was a dream come true.’
“That quote made me think that, despite some situations that might have happened in the last few seasons in the CSO, I couldn’t go against my whole life’s desire: being the principal trumpet of the CSO.”
He added that he was “looking forward to the new era with our new music director, Klaus Mäkelä,” and that he intended to honor the legacy of his Chicago Symphony brass predecessors through “dignity, responsibility, and trying to implement work ethic and other professional aspects together with my CSO colleagues.”
A soloist speaks out
A CSO spokesperson told the Tribune that German violinist Christian Tetzlaff remains scheduled to open the CSO’s chamber series (Oct. 5). Complicating that: Tetzlaff’s statements to the New York Times on Feb. 28, in which he vowed to cancel his U.S. engagements at least through the spring. He cited the Trump administration’s hostilities toward Ukraine, federal workers and transgender Americans as the reason for his boycott.
Should Tetzlaff extend his cancellations into next season and beyond, his recent appearance at the CSO, playing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, may be his last in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
“I pay 32% taxes on every concert I play in the United States. That goes, at the moment, to a state that does partially horrible things with the money,” Tetzlaff told the Times. (He declined further interviews through a representative.) “And so to complain and then to say, ‘I take my money and go home’ — that’s also not good.”
All concerts take place in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center (220 S. Michigan Ave.) unless otherwise noted. Tickets and subscriptions are now on sale; more information at cso.org
Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
