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SCP Classical artists booked for next season include (from top left) Yunchan Lim, Hilary Hahn, Beatrice Rana, TwoSet Violins and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto of Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería.
Symphony Center Presents offers an extensive line-up each season of top classical-music artists such as visiting orchestras and soloists, along with ensembles from the worlds of jazz and chamber music.
The 2025/26 Symphony Center Presents season features some of classical music’s biggest stars, such as violinist Pinchas Zukerman and Christian Tetzlaff and pianists Evgeny Kissin and Yuja Wang, as well as much-touted newcomers in their SCP debuts, such as 20-year-old South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim.
Other SCP highlights include the return on May 24, 2026, of violinist Hilary Hahn, a former CSO artist-in-residence; Wang’s collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as pianist and conductor on April 29, 2026, and the music-and-dance extravaganza Tango After Dark on Feb. 28, 2026.
Here is a look at the complete SCP classical lineup:
SCP Chamber Music
Oct. 5, Christian Tetzlaff, violin: One of the world’s great violinists and a regular at Symphony Center is scheduled to present a program of J.S. Bach’s complete solo sonatas and partitas for his instrument. He made a recording of this repertoire, with which he has long been associated, in 2017 for the Ondine label.
March 7, 2026, Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Amanda Forsyth, cello, and Michael Stephen Brown, piano: Zukerman, one of the most renowned violinists of the last half-century, joins Forsyth, his wife, and Brown for a program of piano trios, including Dvořák’s beloved 1891 Piano Trio No. 4, Dumky.
April 29, 2026, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Yuja Wang, piano and conductor: This Berlin-based ensemble regularly collaborates with a network of top-level artistic partners, the latest of whom is Wang, one of classical music’s most recognized stars. For this program, which includes Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 (Classical), she will serve as both soloist and leader.
SCP Piano
Oct. 19, Yunchan Lim, piano: In 2022, Lim, at 18, became the youngest person ever to win the famed Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. His career has exploded since, and he will make his much-anticipated SCP debut with a program consisting of Anton Webern’s Variations, Op. 27, and J.S. Bach’s celebrated Goldberg Variations, BWV 988.
Nov. 2, Beatrice Rana, piano: Since making her Symphony Center Presents debut in 2019 as part of a three-week American recital tour, Rana has continued to see her profile rise. Her program for this appearance will include pianist Mikhail Pletnev’s solo-piano arrangement of a concert suite from Tchaikovsky’s beloved ballet, The Nutcracker.
Nov. 16, Hayato Sumino, piano: Sumino, who appeared last summer with the CSO at the Ravinia Festival, is making his SCP debut. Though he did not win the 2021 Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, his performance in the second round attracted 45,000 online viewers, setting a record for the competition and gaining him widespread attention.
Jan. 25, 2026, Kirill Gerstein, piano: In January 2010, Gerstein became the sixth recipient of the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award, a $300,000 prize bestowed every four years; now 45, the keyboardist has since become a regular at Symphony Center. For this program, he will perform works by Brahms and Liszt.
Feb. 22, 2026, Marc-André Hamelin, piano: Hamelin is famed for his unusually diverse repertoire and his exceptional technique. Both will be on display in this concert, which features Charles Ives’ 45-minute Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60, one of the American composer’s best-known pieces.
March 8, 2026, Benjamin Grosvenor, piano: When Benjamin Grosvenor made his recital debut at Symphony Center in 2017, the soloist was just 24 years old but had already attained extraordinary success. The program for his latest appearance will include Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit.
May 17, 2026, Evgeny Kissin, piano: Little needs to be said about Kissin, who stands as one of the most respected keyboardists of our time. The Soviet-born, onetime prodigy is now 53 and holds both British and Israeli citizenship. His program will include the Sonata No. 2, Op. 12, by little-known Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881-1950).
June 7, 2026, Conrad Tao, piano: Tao will present a predominantly American program with jazz and classical works by composers George Gershwin, Billy Strayhorn, Sergei Rachmaninov (who became a naturalized American citizen in 1943) and Art Tatum.
SCP Featured Concerts
Oct. 14, TwoSet Violin: Comedy has long had its place in the world of classical music. Think of Victor Borge or P.D.Q. Bach. Among the recent performers to continue this tradition of merriment is this Australian duo of violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen, who came to fame with their music-comedy videos on YouTube and now have 9.5 million online followers.
Oct. 24, Chris Thile, mandolin and vocals: Thile has achieved wide fame with a career that has bridged the classical- and folk-music worlds. He is best known for his work with acoustic trio Nickel Creek and bluegrass quintet Punch Brothers, but he also wrote a mandolin concerto in 2009 and released an album of arrangements of J.S. Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas in 2013.
Nov. 29, Vienna Boys Choir, Christmas in Vienna: This celebrated Austrian institution marked its 525th anniversary in 2023, an extraordinary record of longevity that few if any other such groups can match. It returns for another celebration of the holiday season with an always-different program drawn from classical, popular and folk music.
Dec. 9, A Chanticleer Christmas: With more than 40 performances of Chanticleer’s holiday program in Chicago since 1995, the 12-member, all-male vocal ensemble from San Francisco has become an essential and beloved part of the city’s musical celebration of the yuletide.
Dec. 16, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass, Michael Mulcahy, conductor: The CSO’s famed brass section began performing an annual concert in Symphony Center in 2006 and it has become a hugely popular event. “There is nothing quite like this concert, because we’re packed to the rafters, and we often sell extra seats onstage. That atmosphere and the anticipation is really like no other,” Mulcahy, a CSO trombone who leads the program, told Experience CSO in 2023.
Jan. 18, 2026, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor, Pacho Flores, trumpet: This Mexico City-based orchestra has been led by Prieto since 2006. The group often performs works by Latin-American composers; included on this line-up are Paquito d’Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano for trumpet and orchestra (2019) and two works by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940).
Feb. 10, 2026, Kevin Puts’ Emily – No Prisoner Be, with Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano, and Time for Three: DiDonato, who is serving at the CSO’s 2025/26 Artist-in-Residence, and Time for Three, a string trio, will present this 80-minute, semi-staged song cycle composed by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Kevin Puts, featuring the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Its world premiere will occur in August at the Bregenzer Festspiele, an annual summer festival in Austria.
Feb. 28, 2026, Tango After Dark: Billed as the “ultimate theatrical tango experience,” this presentation pays tribute to the sensual, instantly identifiable music of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, with tango superstar German Cornejo and his company of 10 dancers, as well as two singers and seven musicians.
May 24, 2026, Hilary Hahn, violin: Hahn, the CSO’s inaugural artist-in-residence in 2021/2024, returns for this solo recital. After having to curtail concertizing since July 2024 because of a pinched nerve, she took the stage in late February for a set of concerts with the New York Philharmonic.
