Tucson Symphony Orchestra hopes to transcend our senses with its 2025-26 season, which features the return of a world-renowned piano phenom, a twofer from a world-renowned mezzo-soprano and a familiar face returning as an artist-in-residence.
The orchestra also will celebrate its 97th season with a concert next April that pays tribute to America as it celebrates its 250th birthday.
But it will do it all without Concertmaster Lauren Roth.
Roth, who has been on sabbatical this season after winning the assistant concertmaster role with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Georgia, announced her resignation to TSO officials last week.
Roth had been with the orchestra 11 years.
TSO Music Director José Luis Gomez said the orchestra will open auditions for the position in May.
"Eleven years of a tenure, it's a long time, but if you look at all the other concertmasters of, let's say iconic orchestras, they stay there for forever ... and they kind of imprint their own personality in those orchestras," Gomez said. "She did that for us in such a short time. Her commitment to the orchestra, to the community, was really remarkable."
Piano phenom Lang Lang will make his first Tucson Symphony Orchestra performance in 14 years when he plays a special concert on March 29, 2026.
The orchestra's "Transcend Your Senses" season opens with the return of pianist Olga Kern performing the Rach 3 — Rachmaninoff's virtuosic and demanding concerto — on Sept. 26 and 28 at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall. Fun fact: A day before the last time the orchestra performed the Rach 3 in 2007, Kern was at Centennial Hall performing the same piece with the National Philharmonic of Russia.
We also will see the return of piano phenom Lang Lang for a special concert on March 29, 2026 — his first TSO concert since 2011 and only his second ever with the orchestra. Lang Lang, however, is no stranger to Tucson stages; he has played a number of recitals here since he introduced himself to Tucson in 2000 with the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. That concert was only his fourth in the U.S. after the then 17-year-old replaced Andre Watts at Chicago's Ravinia Festival in summer 1999.
Season tickets are on sale now, and those holders will get first dibs on the Lang Lang concert. Single tickets won't go on sale until the fall.
Former TSO concertmaster Steven Moeckel returns as an artist-in-residence in the fall.
Other highlights of the season, which Gomez and TSO Operations Manager Ben Nisbet unveiled last weekend during two presentations with season ticketholders at Tucson Symphony Center, include:
- Former TSO concertmaster Steven Moeckel will perform Mozart's Violin Concerto with the orchestra Oct. 11-12 as part of his artist-in-residency. He also will perform an Up Close recital the following weekend, Oct. 18-19.
- Arizona-born lyric mezzo-soprano Angela Brower comes home to perform Berlioz's cantata" Cléopâtre" on the "Debussy's La mer" concert Jan. 23-25, 2026, and will stick around another week for Mozart's Requiem Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. Both concerts are part of the 2026 Tucson Desert Song Festival. Brower's career for a number of years has centered in Europe.
- Tucson's own desert rockers Calexico join the TSO Dec. 13-14 for "Holidays in Tucson," which also will include Tucson vocalist Katherine Byrnes singing holiday classics and the University of Arizona School of Dance performing a new dance piece by its director Duane Cyrus to Duke Ellington’s "The Nutcracker."
- The orchestra's "Copland's Fanfare for America" concert on April 10 and 12, 2026, anchors an all-American program that includes Joan Tower's "Sixth Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman" and the TSO premiere of Tucson composer Robert Muczynski's Symphony, part of Gomez's seasons-long exploration of the Tucson composer's music. The concert also will mark the first time Gomez will conduct Copland's famous symphony.
"Every program has something to offer. ... I think all of the programs are so compelling and so exciting for me," Gomez said. "The whole season is probably one of the best seasons that we have put together. ... This is a great combination of music, thematics, intentions, community, all of it."
Season at a glance
Tucson Symphony performs its Classics concerts at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., and Masterworks at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive. For tickets and details, visit tucsonsymphony.org.
Arizona native Angela Brower will have two shows with Tucson Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2026 Tucson Desert Song Festival.
Classics: "Kern Plays Rachmaninoff," with pianist Olga Kern, Sept. 26 and 28; "Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky," with guest violinist Francisco Fullana and guest conductor Manuel Hernández Silva, Oct. 24 and 26; "Strauss and Britten," with viola/violinist Yura Lee making her TSO debut, Nov. 14 and 16; "Beethoven’s Emperor" with Alessio Bax in his TSO debut, Dec. 5 and 7; "Debussy's La mer," with lyric mezzo-soprano Angela Brower, Jan. 23 and 24, 2026; "Mahler's Tragic," Feb. 20 and 22; "Bizet and Barber," with guest conductor Shiyeon Sung and violinist Tessa Lark, March 20 and 22; "Copland's Fanfare for America," April 10 and 12.
Masterworks: "Mozart and Schubert," with artist-in-residence Steven Moeckel, Oct. 11-12; "Beethoven's Pastoral," with cellist Julian Schwarz and guest conductor Conner Gray Covington, Nov. 8-9; "Haydn's Farewell," featuring a new work by Arizona-raised composer Paola Prestini, Jan. 10-11; "Mozart's Requiem," featuring new music by TSO's longtime composer-in-residence Dan Coleman to bridge the work with Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus," Jan. 31 and Feb. 1; "Debussy and Piazzolla," with Agentinian conductor Fernanda Lastra and TSO principal flute Alexander Lipay soloing on Ibert's Flute Concerto, March 7-8.
The internationally recognized mariachi Tlen Huicani will be part of the Nov. 1 "Dia de los Muertos: A Celebration of Life" collaboration with Tucson International Mariachi Conference.
Special events: "Día de los Muertos: A Celebration of Life," in collaboration with Tucson International Mariachi Conference and featuring Mexico's celebrated mariachi Tlen Huicani, Nov. 1; "Underscore: Shostakovich," a deep dive into Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, Dec. 6; "Holidays in Tucson," with the UA School of Dance, Katherine Byrnes and Calexico, Dec. 13-14; "Messiah," featuring TSO Chorus and soloists, Dec. 20-21; Pink Martini featuring vocalist Storm Large, Jan. 17-18, 2026, as part of the 2026 Tucson Jazz Festival; "Celebrating America at 250," Feb. 14-15; "Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert," May 16-17.
