Kathy Nordmeyer, Patron Services associate, selects programs by Lim, Trifonov

The 2025/26 seasons of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Center Presents are just weeks away, and members of the Sales and Patron Experience team are here to help. Subscriptions for all series are now on sale and can be ordered online or over the phone.  Can’t decide which concerts to select? Over the next weeks, staff members will offer their own choices for the must-see performances of 2025/26.

Kathy Nordmeyer, a Patron Services associate, says: “How fortunate are we to have so many opportunities to hear extraordinary music! Coming up with just five was so difficult because everything is so wonderful. But here is an attempt at a Top Five — with about 50 more that I could add.”

Here are her must-see selections for the upcoming season:

Yunchan Lim, SCP Piano (Oct. 19): Lim will present a solo recital that includes Bach’s Goldberg Variations, considered by many to be a pinnacle of keyboard music. Building on a simple aria, the music spins a musical tale across 30 variations. Sublime music.

Klaus Mäkelä & Yuncham Lim, CSO Classical (Dec. 18-20): Two treasures in the world of music share the same stage in December: Klaus Mäkelä conducting, with Yunchan Lim at the piano, in Schumann’s gorgeous Piano Concerto, which the composer’s wife (and a wonderful pianist in her own right), premiered. Also on the program is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. Listening to this extraordinary music, it is hard to imagine how someone whose hearing loss was worsening could conceive of such beauty. Beethoven himself thought this was one of his finest works.

Salonen, Trifonov & Beethoven, CSO Classical (Jan. 29-Feb. 1): The following month we will have two more extraordinary musicians: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting, with Daniil Trifonov as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, plus, the extraordinarily beautiful Symphony No. 4 of Bruckner, which he subtitled Romantic. Beethoven’s second piano concerto, which Beethoven composed as a vehicle to show off his own virtuosity, is a great vehicle to experience Lim’s amazing technical prowess and musicianship.

Songs of Love and Farewell, CSO Classical (April 9-12): One of the vocal music treasures that I adore is the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, which the CSO will perform in early April with soprano Corinne Winters and Jakub Hrůša at the podium. The songs are an extraordinary meditation on life and death and the transition into “The Magic Circle of the Night.” Surrounding this set of songs are pieces by Janáček, Rachmaninov and Wagner exploring the same themes. 

Yuja Wang & Mahler Chamber Orchestra, SCP Chamber Music (April 29): This program treats us to a concert by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with Yuja Wang at the keyboard and conducting. No surprise: the concert is filled with piano concertos by Chopin and Prokofiev, along with Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 2 (Classical). Yuja Wang’s dazzling technique and sumptuous musicality alongside the superb Mahler Chamber Orchestra will make this an exciting concert. 

Note: Curated and create-your-own subscriptions are available now; tickets for individual concerts go on sale Aug. 6.