The OSM and Kent Nagano reveal season 2018/19 (March 2018)

The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Kent Nagano unveiled the programming for season 2018/19, marking the OSM’s 85. season. At a glance, the season will offer more than 100 concerts, 60 or so programs, 112 artists and 2 tours.

“The OSM’s 85th season is a reflection of the strong Montreal tradition, a musical tradition which has always had a core. This is to say that in our tradition, a symphony is a picture or a metaphor for human life and human experiences. It is a gigantic palette of styles with special connections to the folklore of many countries and regions within. A symphony is “diversity in unity” and it is exactly that which makes up our special social life in both small and large scale. We invite you all to celebrate with us this rich musical tradition.”  – states Music Director Kent Nagano.

The first tour in September 2018 will lead the OSM and Kent Nagano to Nunavik, the Far North of Quebec to visit six villages in three nations: Inuit, Innu and Cree. The opera Chaakapesh, The Trickster’s Quest by Tomson Highway and Matthew Ricketts was commissioned for the occasion. The idea of this tour is to share the OSM’s classical music with all the peoples of Quebec and is intended as a meeting point between the different cultures by way of rich and respectful interaction through music. Thus the project will consist of a musical journey from North to South, from Nunavik to the Côte-Nord, by way of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and northern Quebec.

A twelfth European tour is on the agenda for March 2019 (11 – 23 March 2019), when the Orchestra will be visiting some of the most highly esteemed concert halls of the great capitals of Europe: Dusseldorf (Tonhalle), Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie), Essen (Philharmonie), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Paris (Philharmonie), Brusells (Palais des Beaux-Arts), Munich (Philharmonie Im Gasteig), Regensburg (University Audimax) and Berlin, at the prestigious Philharmonie. Soloists will be pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Rafał Blechacz as well as Alto Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

In Montréal, Kent Nagano will stand at the rostrum of the orchestra with Bach’s Mass in b minor (4, 5 Dec 2018) and a Brahms Symphony cycle (7 – 10 Feb 2019), among others. Guests of the new OSM season will be violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Julian Rachlin, pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Evgeny Kissin and Daniil Trifonov and the conductors Christoph Eschenbach and François-Xavier Roth, and many more.

Find here the OSM’s program for season 2018/19. And click here for the video trailer of the new season.