Dallas Symphony Orchestra celebrates 125 years with 2025-26 season

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra has been making music for 125 years. To celebrate its quasquicentennial, the orchestra’s 2025-26 season highlights significant moments, artists and music from the orchestra’s history.

The orchestra was founded in 1900 with 40 musicians under the direction of conductor Hans Kreissig. It is the oldest orchestra in Texas and one of the oldest in the nation.

“We are delighted to unveil an extraordinary concert season that celebrates the DSO’s 125th anniversary,” said Michelle Miller Burns, the orchestra’s Ross Perot President & CEO. “This season, we continue our longstanding tradition of artistic excellence with a dynamic lineup of programming, including world premieres and cherished masterworks within the Texas Instruments Classical Series, and thrilling fan-favorites in the Pops Series Presented by Capital One. We look forward to welcoming audiences to experience the joy of 125 years of music with us at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.”

The 2025-26 season marks the sixth year of Fabio Luisi as the orchestra’s Music Director.

“I am honored to be part of the DSO’s history as its Music Director. This season brings joy in recognizing what we have accomplished in recent years, provides a moment to reflect on our past 125 years, and presents an opportunity to look forward to the exciting, essential work we will continue to pursue,” Luisi said. “I am particularly eager to further develop two crucial skills of the DSO: sound shaping and spontaneous musicianship. In this spirit, it makes perfect sense that this season we will deepen the DSO’s connection with the music of Gustav Mahler.“

Among the 11 programs that he will lead as part of the Texas Instruments Classical Series are

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in concerts October 2 and 5; Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 on Jan. 15 and 16; and the glorious Eighth Symphony (“Symphony of a Thousand”) on May 15 and 17.

Luisi will also present Puccini’s Madama Butterfly as this season’s opera-in-concert production on Jan. 9 and 11, continuing the orchestra’s tradition of presenting operas as concerts.

The 2025 Symphony Gala is a nod to the orchestra’s history. On Oct. 4, Luisi will lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, which Sir Georg Solti conducted at the first subscription concert of his tenure as Music Director in the early 1960s at the orchestra’s then-home venue, McFarlin Memorial Auditorium at SMU. The 2025 Gala program culminates with the glorious Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto featuring Artist-in-Residence Leonidas Kavakos. This annual fundraising event is the official start of the season and benefits the DSO’s education and outreach initiatives including the Young Strings and Kim Noltemy Young Musicians programs.

Along with historic pieces, the 2025-26 season features six world premieres. A few are so new they don’t have titles yet.

The orchestra commissioned former Composer-in-Residence Angélica Negrón to write an expansive work for orchestra, chorus and four vocalists in honor of the orchestra’s 125th anniversary. The new work will be premiered Oct. 16–18, alongside Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Gould’s Latin-American Symphonette.

Kathryn Bostic, Emmy-nominated composer of film, TV and Broadway music, pays homage to Harlem Renaissance blues singer Gladys Bentley in a new work commissioned by the orchestra. Written for soprano and orchestra, the work will feature Karen Slack as the soloist. Marin Alsop will lead the orchestra in this world premiere Nov. 7–9, in a program also featuring Strauss’ Don Juan and Brahms’ Second Symphony.

Luisi will lead the orchestra in a program featuring two world premieres Nov. 20–22: Dallas-based composer Jonathan Cziner’s Clarinet Concerto featuring DSO Principal Clarinet Gregory Raden and composer/pianist Moni (Jasmine) Guo’s new work titled “the sound of where i came from” 乡音.

Sphinx alumna Melissa White makes her Dallas Symphony Orchestra debut with the world premiere of Composer-in-Residence Sophia Jani’s Violin Concerto on Feb. 12–15. Led by Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund, the orchestra will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances on the program.

The orchestra will perform the sixth world premiere of the season on April 16-19.  Principal Viola Meredith Kufchak will be the featured soloist in a new concerto from Grammy-nominated composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Colombian conductor Ana María Patiño-Osorio’s debut program with the DSO also includes Dvořák’s Cello Concerto (with Julian Steckel) and Mendelssohn’s “Italian Symphony.”

The 2025-26 season marks Jeff Tyzik’s 13th year as Principal Pops Conductor.

"Collaborating with the remarkable musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is always a privilege, but this season is truly special. As we celebrate 125 years of extraordinary music-making, the energy and passion are palpable. I can’t wait to bring this thrilling lineup to life and share it with audiences,” Tyzik said.

The Pops Series features Troupe Vertigo; the US Naval Academy’s Men’s & Women’s Glee Clubs and Pipes & Drum Corps performing with the orchestra in a program of patriotic favorites in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary; Icons of the Strip: Sinatra & The Rat Pack; Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony; and a 125th anniversary Pops celebration called Pops Through Time: Iconic Scores & Classic Hits.

Principal Conductor, Dallas Symphony Presents, Enrico Lopez-Yañez brings La Vida Loca to the Meyerson Symphony Center Jan. 30 – Feb. 1. The show features Lopez-Yañez’s original symphonic arrangements of Latin pops hits of the 1990s and 2000s from artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Gloria Estefan, Santana and Ricky Martin.

This season’s movies-in-concert performances include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Sept. 4–7, Home Alone on Dec. 5–7 and Top Gun: Maverick on May 22–24, 2026.

Before the orchestra officially wraps up the milestone season in June 2026, the orchestra will tour the West Coast. In the spring of 2026. Luisi and the orchestra bring the Schumann Piano Concerto (featuring Hélène Grimaud) and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony to audiences in three cities in California: Palm Desert on March 31, Santa Barbara on April 1 and Costa Mesa on April 2.

Learn more: Dallas Symphony Orchestra