Philharmonia Orchestra announces full 80th birthday season

The 2025/6 season will feature an epic Strauss extravaganza, last conducted by Richard Strauss himself in 1947, symphonic blockbusters by Bruckner, Mahler, Berlioz, Ravel and Holst, alongside new concertos from John Adams, Jonathan Dove, Fazil Say and Gabriela Ortiz, who is Featured Composer for the season. Featured Artist pianist Víkingur Ólafsson will perform Beethoven, give the UK premiere of a new piano concerto by John Adams and mark Kurtag’s 100th birthday. The season also includes a collaboration with visual artists Gilbert & George, a genre-crossing heavy metal project, and an opera about the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ tennis match, as well as the introduction of Philharmonia Social – a set of initiatives including 80 free tickets for first-timers to every single concert in the London season.

The 80th birthday season celebrates the Philharmonia’s history and legacy whilst also looking ahead to the future. There will be brand new initiatives in the concert hall and beyond, major international tours, and a stellar programme that looks back at some of the finest moments in the orchestra’s history.  The season’s theme of music and identity will be explored throughout, under the banner: ‘Music is not what we do. It’s what we are.’

To celebrate their audiences and commit to growing the next generation, the Philharmonia have today launched a major new project – Philharmonia Social. Committed to welcoming new audiences to orchestral music and guaranteeing opportunities to experience the orchestra live, they have announced 80 free tickets for first-timers at every single London season concert in 2025/6. Alongside free tickets inside the concert hall, the Orchestra will present 80 live and virtual reality pop-ups all over the UK, taking music to new and unexpected places. Philharmonia Social includes a commitment to enhancing the concert experience by recruiting 80 volunteers to welcome audiences to Philharmonia events and proactively break down any barriers to encountering the art form for the first time. In 2025/6 the Philharmonia will expand the schools programme Orchestra Unwrapped, to work with 80 schools across the UK – introducing thousands more children to live orchestral music. 

To complement the London concert programme, they have also launched Philharmonia debates…, a series of free pre-concert discussions that offer the opportunity to explore how composers, performers, listeners and orchestras forge their identities through music. Experts from the music world and beyond give their take on topics such as ‘music & gender’, ‘music & politics’ and ‘music & belief’, in an interactive format. Each debate is linked to the programme of the concert that follows.

The Philharmonia’s Featured Artist for the 2025/26 season is pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. He will perform with the Orchestra throughout their London season, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, and across the United States. The orchestra’s Featured Composer will be 2025 Grammy-winner Gabriela Ortiz. Her music features throughout the birthday season.

In October the Philharmonia will embark on a major US tour spanning the East and West coasts – their first with Principal Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop, and their first since the Covid pandemic. They are joined by pianists Vikingur Olafsson and Alexandre Kantorow. The tour culminates in two performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, marking 70 years since the Philharmonia’s first performance there in 1955 under the baton of Herbert von Karajan. Their tour programmes include the US premiere of Si el oxígeno fuera verde by Gabriela Ortiz, and at Carnegie Hall they will perform Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, both of which were part of Karajan’s Carnegie Hall programmes. 

Other international appearances include opening the Concertgebouw’s international season in September with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Víkingur Ólafsson, a concert at the Musikverein in Vienna, a tour to Korea in December including a performance at the Seoul Arts Centre, and a major European tour in January with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and violinist Hilary Hahn.