Seasons & Series

The orchestra's eighteenth season, built around the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death and divided into four strands: Tribute, Maestro, Dialogue and Chamber. It opens on 12 September 2026. Four concerts are listed here — the ones whose dates the announcement published.

4 concertsSep 12 – Mar 27

The 2026-27 season runs to 93 performances along two strands, SSO Season and SSO Presents: 28 orchestral concerts, 47 by visiting artists, 7 chamber programmes, 6 MAP classes and 5 rush-hour concerts. The artist in residence is the violinist Leonidas Kavakos. He plays from the September opening to the June closing, ten violin concertos across eight concerts: Mozart Nos. 3 and 5, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Bartók No. 2, Shostakovich No. 1, Korngold, and Zhou Tian's concerto for violin and erhu, commissioned by the orchestra. The ten span roughly 250 years. The season also falls on the 120th anniversary of Shostakovich's birth and the 200th of Beethoven's death, and neither is confined to a memorial concert. Shostakovich runs from the First Symphony to the Thirteenth, with three of the string quartets from the Quatuor Danel; on the Beethoven side, the 32 piano sonatas are divided among seven Chinese pianists.

Orchestra Concerts · Visiting Artists · MAP Class · Rush Hour Concerts · Chamber Music · Z+ Festival · The Chinese Beethoven · 8th Shanghai Early Music Festival

96 concertsSep 11 – Nov 13

The theatre's 2026-27 season, announced 19 August 2026 under the title Here & Now and split into three strands. We index the music, musical-theatre and dance strands; spoken drama is out of scope.

Shanghai Grand Theatre · One-Man-Show Classical Recital Series

18 concertsAug 4 – May 22

SHOAC's 2026/27 autumn-winter season: 40 productions across 68 performances, threaded by the Mozart Project and organised into five units.

The Mozart Project · Symphony at the East · Masters Live · The Singing Voice · Theatre and Dance · Oriental Citizens Concert · Future Masters

53 concertsJul 3 – Jan 24

The inaugural season of the Shanghai Grand Opera House: 47 productions, 82 performances, 17 Oct 2026 - 20 Feb 2027.

32 concertsOct 17 – Jan 30

SZSO's tenth-anniversary season, themed "Music is about movements", led by music director Chen Xieyang and principal conductor Xu Zhong, with guests including Pinchas Zukerman, Claus Peter Flor and Laurent Petitgirard.

18 concertsSep 12 – Jul 10

When everything can be streamed, recommended by an algorithm or generated outright, why still go to a concert hall? This century-old hall answers with real rooms, real bodies, real sound, and a group of people listening at the same moment.

Special Presentation: Piano Solo Series · Linglong Chinese Music, Season 9

23 concertsAug 1 – Dec 11