The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2024-25 Delta Classical Concert season. This marks their 80th anniversary season and Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann’s third season wielding the baton.
Stutzmann was recently named “Best Conductor of the Year” at the Oper Awards, in part for her outstanding debut at the Bayreuth Festival in June of 2023 with Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2023 garnered praise from critics and audiences alike, with The New York Times calling it a “splashy Met debut.”
“With each year, the orchestra and I get to know one another more and more, and this season I am eager to dive into some of the cornerstones of the Classical period,” said Stutzmann.
Stutzmann in the 2024-25 Season
The 2024-25 season opens on September 19, 2024, with Stutzmann conducting Mahler’s Symphony No.1, “Titan,” and cellist Edgar Moreau playing Schumann’s Cello Concerto.
The following weekend, Sept. 26,27, Stutzmann is joined by mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and baritone Samuel Hasselhorn, both making their ASO debuts, for Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), followed by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6.
Stutzmann returns to the podium on Nov. 7, 9, and 10 to conduct an evening of Mozart, presenting Symphony No. 40 and the masterpiece Mass in C Minor. Joining the Orchestra for the Mass are Olga Kulchynska, soprano; Julia Lezhneva, soprano; Lunga Eric Hallam, tenor; and Harold Wilson, bass, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
On Nov. 14 and 16, ASO Principal Flute Christina Smith takes center stage with Stutzmann conducting C.P.E. Bach’s Flute Concerto in D Minor, originally composed for King Frederick the Great. The same evening, after a well-received festival of his work in the 2023-24 season, Stutzmann returns to the “Architect of the Spirit,” Bruckner, and conducts his Symphony No. 4, “Romantic.”
Stutzmann welcomes 2022 Van Cliburn medalist Anna Geniushene, a pianist “with an exquisite touch and an almost infinite tonal palette” (La Scena), on April 10 and 12, 2025, to make her ASO debut playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The program also features Ravel’s Ma mère L’Oye (Mother Goose) and La valse.
Beethoven Project
In early 2025, Stutzmann begins the epic “Beethoven Project,” a series of concerts consisting of Beethoven’s first eight symphonies. The project allows audiences to follow the composer’s journey throughout his career:
- Jan. 23 and 25 Symphonies No. 1 and No. 3, “Eroica.”
- Jan. 30, Feb. 1 & 2 Symphony No. 2 and the world-famous Symphony No. 5.
- Feb. 27 and March 1 Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral.”
- March 6, 8, and 9 Symphonies No. 4 and No. 7
Concluding the Beethoven Project for the season on May 10 and 11, Stutzmann conducts one of Beethoven’s most epic works for orchestra and chorus, the MissaSolemnis, with the Orchestra joined by the world-renowned Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. The four featured soloists in this notoriously difficult piece are all highly acclaimed opera singers: Julia Grüter, soprano; Anna Goryachova, mezzo-soprano; Miles Mykkanen, tenor; and Lawson Anderson, baritone.
Yo-Yo Ma returns to Atlanta Symphony Hall
This year, Ma plays a special concert on December 5, 2024, with Eric Jacobsen conducting. Ma will play Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1, which has not been heard in Atlanta in some years, and Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, a Brazilian composer from the early 20th Century.
Subscriptions are available at aso.org/2425.